However, the automatic conversion of arable land into permanent grassland after a fixed period can create unnecessary regulatory pressure for farmers wishing to keep their land classified as arable land. Therefore, in order to provide greater flexibility, it should be possible for Member States to decide that land classified as arable land on 1 January 2026 remains arable land, even where the period of five or seven years has expired. In such a case, farmers should be given the possibility to opt out from the decision taken by the Member State and to continue applying the rule of conversion of their arable land into permanent grassland after the expiry of the five or seven year period. To ensure consistency and legal certainty, Member States implementing such flexibility should also ensure that their decision does not affect ongoing multiannual environmental commitments undertaken under Article 70 of Regulation (EU) 2021/2115, and that beneficiaries are given the possibility to amend or withdraw accordingly the application referred to in Article 69(1) of Regulation (EU) 2021/2116 in the year following the Member States’ decision.
Text as published in the Official Journal, reproduced verbatim (including any typographical quirks of the source). For the authentic version, see EUR-Lex.
