New IPPC rules drawn up by the European Parliament environment committee will inflict heavy extra costs on pig and poultry farmers, the greenhouse sector and farms with feed mills if voted through, according to Farmers Guardian.

But after intense lobbying from the NFU Brussels office, a number of amendments to weaken the environment committee text have been introduced for MEPs to consider.

MEP lobbying was bolstered last week by Jane Kennedy, Food and Farming Minister, as she joined the NFU and National Pig Association in Brussels to help convince MEPs to drop potentially damaging proposals.

A spokesman in the NFU Brussels office said: “Our efforts to table amendments on the five biggest issues were very much helped by the presence in Brussels of Minister Jane Kennedy and the many members who have written to their MEPs during the past weeks.”

One amendment attempts to dismiss lower bird thresholds that would bring more poultry farmers under the rules. Another one attempts to delete nitrogen equivalency factors which would affect over a hundred pig farmers.

Other amendments will try to return the input thermal value back to 50MW – which will spare some of the greenhouse sector – and delete manure spreading requirements.

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