Simplifying EU Environmental Regulation is Key Priority for IFA

IFA Environment Chair John Murphy represented COPA at an Implementation Dialogue event recently, hosted by Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall and Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen to discuss the on-the-ground impact of the Nitrates Directive, Water Framework Directive and the Birds and Habitats Directives.

In December 2025, the European Commission put forward its proposed environmental simplification package. The Commission has made simplification — reducing reporting burdens and simplifying legislation — one of its top priorities for the next five years. The package aims to ensure EU environmental goals are achieved in more efficient, less costly and smarter ways, with a focus on industrial emissions, circularity and environmental assessments.

At the event, John Murphy said farmers are fully committed to environmental protection but warned that the overly precautionary application of EU law is placing disproportionate costs and burdens on farmers, with too little regard for the socio-economic reality on the ground.

“Progressive court judgments in the Birds, Habitats and Nitrates Directives have created massive uncertainty, imposed increasing costs and, in some instances, prevented normal farm practices and development. This is undermining farm viability, and the uncertainty is discouraging a new generation from entering the sector.”

Mr. Murphy said the dialogue provided an important opportunity for the Commissioners to hear directly from farmers about their practical experiences on the ground of dealing with environmental regulation.

“Farmers are struggling with increasing complexity and uncertainty around legal interpretations, a lack of clarity and guidance, and an over-precautionary approach in decision-making,” he said. “This has massively increased the cost of doing business and made it extremely difficult to plan or invest in normal farm development.”

He said the current environmental regulatory system requires urgent reform, adding that “it is now being viewed by many farmers as a system designed to control and limit production rather than genuinely deliver environmental outcomes.”

As part of the IFA’s ongoing efforts to simplify regulations through constructive engagement with the European Commission, IFA Deputy President Alice Doyle met with Eric Mamer, Director-General of DG Environment, in Brussels last week through the COPA COGECA Praesidia.

Alice Doyle said, “Our engagement with DG Environment in relation to environmental files affecting farmers including simplification of the Nitrates and Habitats Directive and the Nature Restoration Law remain a core IFA priority”.