MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION on reducing the impact on farm land of ground-based photovoltaic plants

13.8.2021

pursuant to Rule 143 of the Rules of Procedure

Susanna Ceccardi, Marco Campomenosi, Alessandro Panza, Paolo Borchia, Antonio Maria Rinaldi, Gianantonio Da Re, Marco Dreosto, Isabella Tovaglieri, Simona Baldassarre, Sergio Berlato, Carlo Fidanza, Nicola Procaccini, Vincenzo Sofo

B9‑0422/2021

Motion for a European Parliament resolution on reducing the impact on farm land of ground-based photovoltaic plants

The European Parliament,

– having regard to Directive 2011/92/EU[1],

– having regard to Rule 143 of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas all Member States are receiving a high number of requests for the erection of photovoltaic plants with ground-based modules, which would take large swathes of crop land out of agricultural use;

B. whereas in view of this trend, some regions of Italy are drawing up legislative tools to regulate the aforementioned situation, which, as organisations in the primary sector and local authorities have stressed, could spread and grow in a dangerously unsustainable way to the detriment of farming;

C. whereas farm land is a limited asset and whereas it is the duty of the European Union to ensure that land is properly and sustainably managed, and even more so at a time like the present with the pandemic, during which the primary sector has ensured a strategic supply line for food;

1. Calls on the Commission to keep watch, including in its implementation of the commitments made in the Fit for 55 package, and ensure that the farming sector and the landscaped are not placed in jeopardy by use of farm land in the Member States for erection of ground-based photovoltaic plants;

2. Urges the Commission to adopt all useful initiatives that come within its remit in order to reduce the impact of ground-based photovoltaic plants and prevent speculation.

• [1] Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment (OJ L 26, 28.1.2012, p. 1).