Mr. Joe Condon:

There was a reference to moving land out of Article 9 and into Article 4. That would remove it from agricultural activity, I believe. Article 4 is not defined as agricultural land; it is defined as habitat. Depending on how hill land is going to be defined in this restoration directive, it is going to have serious consequences for that land because Article 4 is not about agricultural land, whereas Article 9 is about restoration of agricultural ecosystems. Article 4 states that there is going to be a re-establishment of areas not covered by those habitats. That means there will be a reversal of improved hill lands. Everyone knows that if you improve hill land, it will a costly exercise but reversing it will be extremely costly. How are those costs going to be met?

This will be a legally imposed target. We cannot see a funding stream identified anywhere in this document. There is plenty of funding for developing ecologists and administrative staff in Europe but we cannot see any funding for the type of cost that will be imposed on farmers to meet this legal requirement.