SofteningTheBlow

SOFTEN THE BLOWefficiency, especially at the time of harvest, makes it harder to getthings done on time etc.’This is an example of so-called ‘gold plating’, in whichdomestic governments add extra burdens on EU directives.The suggestion is that in many areas, DEFRA is less liberalthan Europe, so cannot be relied upon to relax the rules.The Federation of Small Businesses (below) have similarconcerns with the implementation of EU tractor rules. 21Dr Clark had more illustrations:‘Soil protection is sort of another example of what Martinreferenced: gold plating. There is nothing like that, or in thatform, certainly not to start with, in the rest of Europe. Somehave caught up with us since, but it’s DEFRA who came up withthe clear plan on soil protection. Other states have much lighterweightrules, having regard to compaction and soil erosion andthat sort of thing – general binding rules that are more frequentlywritten down and observed rather than followed.‘Here it’s led to a comprehensive requirement, and penalties if youdon’t complete a plan. So it’s another example of cross-compliance.Just in sheer numbers we have 35 more cross-compliance rules thanany other country, and yet we all have the same requirements interms of setting out cross-compliance rules.’There were similar frustrations with the Habitats andSpecies Directive, with 2,000 sites set aside, and the WaterFramework Directive, which threatens:‘…very significant costs for the water companies that will, inthe next five or six years, impact on agriculture because to complywith the standards to keep those blue flags flying on bathing waters,they’re starting to look at where agriculture contributes pollution.‘Are we actually saying that if we pulled out, the domestic UKgovernment will turn around and go, “You know, actually I’dbe quite happy for half of our blue flag beaches no longer being· 20 ·