Brussels, 13 July – EU Member States today approved new environmental “operating rules” for the Union’s largest intensive pig and poultry farms. But instead of tightening controls on industrial pollution as intended by the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), the final text granted a “gift” to the biggest industrial farms through various flexibilities and exemptions, warns the European Environmental Bureau (EEB). 

The new rules, known as the Uniform Conditions for Operating Rules on Livestock (UCOL), were intended to establish clear and harmonised minimum standards for tackling major health, environmental and climate impacts from intensive livestock production, including in relation to ammonia emissions and manure management. With the IED only applying to industrialised mega farms, the requirements established by UCOL would not have affected micro, small and medium farms [1]. 

Yet instead of holding one of Europe’s most polluting sectors [2] accountable for the health and environmental damages it causes, the final text largely mirrors requirements that have been in place since 2017 [3], contains numerous exemptions and flexibilities, and will not begin to apply until between 2030 and 2032, depending on farm size. 

Today’s vote is a missed opportunity to strengthen environmental protection and reduce pollution from some of the EU’s most intensive animal rearing operations. Cattle farming also continues to be completely excluded, despite its major environmental and climate impacts, particularly of methane, a potent climate-heating gas, cautions the EEB.  

Aliki Kriekouki, Senior Policy Officer for Industrial Production, EEB, said: 

“The Commission promised a balanced process. What we got was a text shaped by repeated concessions. The rules’ environmental ambition has been diluted by flexibilities, exemptions, special ceilings for ”newly covered farms”, and reduced monitoring. Implementation is further delayed, even though many of the standards concerned have been in place for years.  

Rather than raising the bar on pollution from industrial livestock production, the final UCOL text lowers expectations of what the revised Industrial Emissions Directive can actually deliver.” 

 

The costs of granting intensive agriculture special treatment are already visible across Europe. Rural communities and taxpayers are paying the price as pollution from intensive livestock production worsens: rivers and lakes are turning green with excess nutrients, aquatic dead zones are expanding, nitrate contamination is threatening drinking water supplies [4]. At the same time, ecosystems and our health keeps being threatened by air pollution – with agriculture being responsible for almost all ammonia emissions in the EU (a key precursor for PM 2.5 [5]). 

Meanwhile, emissions from factory farms continue to fuel climate change at a time when Europe is facing record heatwaves, wildfires, and other increasingly frequent extreme weather. Against this backdrop, the final UCOL text is a missed opportunity to tackle pollution and climate change. 

Margherita Tolotto, Head of Air and Noise, EEB, said: 

“The final UCOL text reflects a dangerous deregulation-first mindset, with flexibility repeatedly prioritised over protections for our health – the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the stable climate we depend on.  

With more than half of Member States still needing to reduce ammonia emissions to meet their already weak 2030 commitments (under the National Emission Reduction Commitments Directive). It is the duty of the European Commission and national governments to act in the interest of all citizens, rather than protecting those of one powerful lobby group which falsely claims to represent the entire farming sector.” 

  

Over the past two years, Member States, the European Commission and stakeholders have worked to develop the implementing rules required under the revised IED, which entered into force in August 2024. The EEB has also been part of this process and has repeatedly warned that successive drafts were becoming increasingly toothless, as policymakers weakened, rather than strengthened, key provisions, disregarding available scientific evidence, which was supposed to be the basis for the definition of these rules.  

The final text [6] does little to address these concerns and now risks undermining broader fundamental objectives of the IED, a cornerstone of the EU’s efforts to reduce industrial pollution.  

Once formally adopted, as required by the revised IED by 1 September 2026, UCOL will become the benchmark for how industrial pig and poultry farms operate across the EU. For many stakeholders, today’s vote raises serious questions about whether the new framework will deliver meaningful health and environmental improvements or simply preserve the status quo under a new name.  

ENDS.

Notes to editor: 

[1] Up to July 2024, the IED covered about 23,100 pig and poultry farms, which corresponds to around 18% of the existing pig and poultry farms in the EU. The revision expands the IED scope to include an additional 15,400 farms, resulting in a total coverage of the 30% largest pig and poultry farms. Large farms will fall under the revised directive if they exceed specific livestock unit thresholds. For example, farms with the following number of places are included: 21,439 places for laying hens, 37,500 places for ducks, 40,000 places for broilers, 1,167 places for swine, or 700 sows. Additionally, organic pig farming is also excluded from the scope of the directive.   

[2] Animal agriculture accounts for 65% of all agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in the EU. Around 56% of EU methane emissions is attributable to livestock production systems and manure management. Agriculture accounts for 94% of all EU ammonia emissions, and animal rearing is responsible for the vast majority of these (75%).   

[3] Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2017/302 of 15 February 2017 establishing best available techniques (BAT) conclusions, under Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, for the intensive rearing of poultry or pigs 

[4] Across Spain, 260,000 people are unable to drink tap water due to contamination from nitrates from intensive agriculture. In Galicia, northern Spain, longstanding pollution of water and air from intensive animal rearing operations has contaminated a key reservoir, leading local residents to file a case on human rights grounds – which was ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court.  

[5] PM 2.5 is a very dangerous form of air pollution, which travels deep in our respiratory system and body. The World Health Organisation links exposure to PM 2.5 to various health issues, including cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, cancer, neurological and metabolic disorders, including dementia, and heavy consequences also on maternal and foetal health. A 2022 study shows that ammonia contributes to 50% of PM2.5 air pollution in the EU.  

[6] The final draft UCOL text that was put on vote today can be found here and here. 25 of the 27 Member States voted in favour, while France further secured a late amendment allowing Member States to apply maximum total phosphorus-excretion values collectively across all poultry categories on the same farm. A similar flexibility may also be introduced for nitrogen excretion and for pig farms. 

Image: Selene Magnolia Gatti, 2024 (Poland), WeAnimals.