Permanent grassland definitions in the EU

Policy Briefing #29 (v1) focuses on the flexibility allowed to Member States to define permanent grassland to “include other species such as trees and/or shrubs which produce animal feed”.  This option has not been selected by 15 administrations (AT, BE-F, CZ, DK, EE, HU, HR, LT, LU, LV, MT, NL, PL, SK, SI). Six administrations include the tree/shrub definition but on only part of their territories (BE-W, DE, FR, IT, PT, SE). Three administrations (BG, FI, RO) implement the definition over all their territory, but only if herbaceous vegetation “remains predominant”.  Three administrations  (EL, ES, IE) implement the tree/shrub option over their entire territory even if herbaceous vegetation is not predominant, and a final administration (CY) remains uncertain. Use of this flexibility by Member States is very important to farmers, since it determines their eligibility for CAP-Pillar-1 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS). Eurostat gives a land-cover (Corine/LUCAS) estimate of the area of PG in EU-27 of 54 Mha and land-use (FSS) of 48 Mha.  High-resolution land-use information will become increasingly important as payments for environmental services, carbon farming and emission trading become an established part of farm incomes.