Farmers face 'red tape nightmare'

European Union rules impose heavy burdens on farmers

Britain's farmers are facing too much red tape, according to a report commissioned by Tony Blair.

The report, from the Better Regulation Task Force, urges civil servants not to adopt proposals from Brussels that impose heavy burdens on farmers before other European Union (EU) countries.

It is a common and long-held complaint among farmers that Britain enforces EU directives far more stringently than its continental neighbours.

We should be a little bit less enthusiastic about rushing into introducing regulations ahead of other countries in Europe

Lord Haskins
Task Force chairman

The report, Environmental Regulations and Farmers, also calls for an end to "gold-plating" where Whitehall adds layers of detail to vague EU rules, making compliance much more onerous for UK farmers.

The task force advises that government departments and British farming representatives should take a far more active role in the drafting of directives, to ensure they properly reflect the interests of the country's agricultural sector.

It calls for a full impact assessment of all new EU environmental regulations before they come into force.

Task force chairman Lord Haskins said: "We should be a little bit more careful and a little bit less enthusiastic about rushing into introducing regulations ahead of other countries in Europe."

Environmental protection

But Lord Haskins denied that the report was anti-European and that it blamed red tape for driving farmers to the brink of bankruptcy.

"The report very clearly says the main problem with farming at the moment is the high strength of the pound and the weakness of commodity markets," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

The tragedy is that Labour has not listened to farmers

Tim Yeo
Shadow agriculture minister

"There is no anti-European tone in our report whatsoever."

But shadow agriculture minister Tim Yeo told the programme that farmers are being destroyed by the government's tendency to enforce European laws sooner and more strictly than other EU states.

"The tragedy is that Labour has not listened to farmers," he said.