Dear Commissioner Hansen,
Dear Commissioner Roswall, We are writing to you as representatives of small and medium-scale farmers', civil and environmental society organisations as a follow-up to the Implementation Dialogue on the environmental legislation you hosted on 18 February 2026 to discuss “difficulties and burdens farmers and forest-holders face in the implementation of the Nitrates Directive, the Water Framework Directive and the Habitats and Birds Directives” and from which some of the signatories to this letter were excluded. We regret the continuous framing of environmental safeguards as a burden. The main pressures farmers face do not stem from environmental objectives, but from fragmented implementation, policy instability, insufficient technical advisory systems at national level and the lack of adequate financial incentives to support the transition towards truly sustainable agricultural practices (particularly organic and other agroecological systems). Thus, we urge you not to weaken the environmental legislation that protects farmers and all Europeans.
