An Irish MEP has reacted angrily to the lack of agreement at this week's meeting of agriculture ministers on suspending the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) for fertiliser.

Midlands North-West MEP Ciaran Mullooly was reacting to a Council of the EU meeting yesterday (Monday, March 30) in which European Commissioner for Agriculture Christophe Hansen appeared to rule out a suspension of the CBAM for fertiliser.

The CBAM is effectively a tax on imports of carbon-intensive products into the EU, including fertiliser.

The CBAM requires importers of fertiliser to pay for certificates to import the products.

Due to high prices and lower availability of inputs as a result of the conflict in the Middle East, there are calls for the CBAM to be suspended when it comes to fertiliser.

However, Commissioner Hansen told yesterday's meeting: "Suspending the application of CBAM on fertilisers, should there be a legal basis for this in the future, risks worsening the dependency on imports, and therefore we must be very careful on this issue".

Mullooly said that "if ever the European and Irish agriculture sector needed practical intervention from the European Commission, it is now".

"In the middle of a wartime crisis, with fertiliser prices already under enormous pressure as a result of conflict and instability, it defies logic that the commission would continue to inflict higher costs on farmers through carbon-related charges," he added.

"At a time when food producers are struggling with soaring input costs, the priority should be to reduce pressure on farmers, not add to it," the Independent Ireland MEP said.

He also said he was disappointed that Ireland "did not more firmly back" a call to suspend CBAM for fertiliser.

Mullooly called for the commission to suspend volume restrictions and tariffs on fertiliser from Russia - which were put in place due to the war in Ukraine - to alleviate the cost and availability issue.

"The EU now has a clear choice. It can continue down the road of ideological policymaking, or it can do the right thing for European agriculture by addressing the price and supply of fertiliser for European and Irish farmers," he said.

He also called for the commission's fertiliser action plan to "deliver immediate, tangible relief".

"Farmers need action now. They do not need more delay, more bureaucracy, or more policy gimmicks dressed up as climate ambition," Mullooly commented.