In today's article from the "Lawyer on the Farm" series, we'll present the most important changes that will take effect on January 1, 2025, and are of great importance to farmers. These changes include eco-schemes, widows' pensions, and requirements related to social conditionality.
Social conditionality mechanism
First and foremost, we must mention the social conditionality mechanism. This is a new feature that will be a component of direct payments from 2025. We would like to clarify that the social conditionality mechanism makes the amount of subsidies dependent on compliance with selected national labor law and health and safety regulations. We would like to emphasize that, from January 2025, this is a mandatory element of the payment system in all EU countries. We would like to emphasize that only compliance with all requirements arising from this mechanism will result in receiving the full amount of financial support.
GAEC 2 standard
According to the announcement, the last of the conditionality standards in the CAP 2023-2027 will enter into force in 2025. This, of course, concerns the implementation of the GAEC 2 standard – Protection of wetlands and peatlands – from January 2025. According to the EU, this standard is intended to contribute to the protection of biodiversity. The requirements apply to permanent grasslands and arable land. The introduction of the GAEC 2 standard aims to protect carbon-rich soils and wetlands. The obligation to designate areas covered by this standard arises from Regulation (EU) 2021/2115 of the European Parliament and of the Council and applies only to agricultural land.
Ecoschemes
Many changes will affect direct payments under eco-schemes. The Ministry of Agriculture has announced the expansion of the provisions of the eco-scheme [Lands excluded from production] to allow farmers to apply for support not only for fallow land. This option will also apply to fallow land with newly created landscape features (hedges, wooded strips, linear shelterbelts, isolated trees, field copses, ditches, ponds, field margins, or buffer zones).
However, this is not the end of the eco-scheme reform, as the following changes will apply from 2025: (i) extension of the [Water retention in permanent grasslands] to areas covered by the new GAEC 2 standard, (ii) differentiation of rates under the [Integrated Crop Production] , which will amount to approximately EUR 342.70/ha for fruit crops, approximately EUR 309.21/ha for berries, approximately EUR 146.07/ha for agricultural crops, approximately EUR 309.21/ha for vegetables, (iii) reduction of scores under the [Simplified cultivation systems] and [Mixing straw with soil] under the [Carbon farming and nutrient management] , (iv) introduction of the possibility of support for the use of microbiological fertilizer products, (v) implementation of a new [Seed material] of the elite category or qualified, (vi) introduction of an area limit for subsidies under eco-schemes at the farm level.
Widow's pension
We also inform you that, as of January 1, 2025, regulations will come into effect that will allow widows and widowers to receive concurrent benefits under new rules, known as widow's pensions. Concurrent benefits for farmers will be paid from July 1 of this year.
Agricultural tax
We also remind you that the agricultural tax rate, which is calculated based on the average price of rye as reported by the Central Statistical Office, will change this year. The positive news is that the agricultural tax rate in 2025 will be lower than in the previous year. We remind you that this tax has two rates: (i) for farmland, it is the equivalent of 2.5 quintals of rye – per 1 hectare of conversion, PLN 215.85 in 2025; and (ii) for other agricultural land subject to agricultural tax, it is the equivalent of 5 quintals of rye – per 1 hectare, PLN 431.70 in 2025.
Of course, we would like to point out that these are not all the changes, as the amount of compensation for health impairment and sickness benefits is planned to increase in 2025. Furthermore, the rules for verifying professionally active farmers will also change.
We assure you that we will keep you updated on all changes that come into effect, and we invite you to read the next article now.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
Legal status as of January 23, 2025
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