'This shows how Brussels can choose to ignore member states and thwart democracy. The test now will be whether member states will confront farmers and rural communities'

With a Thursday afternoon brief press release the European Commission confirmed that all its talk of a new relationship with farmers, in the wake of the farm protests, was just talk without substance.

This promised a change of heart came from the top, with a commitment from the Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. But the press release confirmed that the EU's controversial nature restoration legislation would be in place in just three days time.

With this in place the other things Brussels is promising around food security and an easing of bureaucracy are largely irrelevant. This legislation is based around reversing productivity gains achieved over decades on farm land and so goes against all claims that Europe can have a progressive and globally competitive farming industry.

Add in the failure to agree legislation on gene editing, lukewarm efforts to ensure imports meet EU standards and it is clear European politicians are unable to respond to changing opinions in member states about this legislation. Civil servants hated Conservative politicians referring to the civil service as 'the blob', but in this case the green blob of the Brussels establishment has won over common sense.

In the farming community here even staunch remainers will look at this and be grateful Brexit allowed them to escape this legislation. Brexit supporters will deem it a vindication of what they said, even if it does not alter the fact that the Boris Johnson campaign was built on a tissue of lies. This legislation was not even in the pipeline when he was spinning his case for leaving the EU. While the Greens were trounced in the elections to the European parliament a piece of legislation they drove is very much alive and thriving.

This will add to divisions between urban and rural areas and give ammunition to the far right opposed to the Brussels knows best approach.

It will now be up to member states to implement new regulations to bring about the EU's headline objectives. These for restoration measure across 20 per cent of land by 2030 and across all land by 2050. This is put in the context of improving biodiversity, reducing the loss of carbon capture areas and helping mitigate against naturals disasters linked to extreme weather. This may sound good, but the farming lobby sees only further efforts not only to block productivity in agriculture, but to reverse what has been achieved.

That the legislation was introduced in the first place was questionable, but even more so is that Brussels stuck with it despite member states withdrawing their support. This shows how Brussels can choose to ignore member states and thwart democracy. The test now will be the degree to which member states confront farmers and rural communities by pushing implementation and whether Brussels will impose early sanctions on those not seen to be doing so. For the far right, not least in France, this is a gift in their campaign to claim that Brussels ignores the view of member states.

That this legislation exists at all is down to the narrowest of narrow victory in the European parliament in July 2023. This allowed the legislation to be approved in the face of massive opposition. It is akin to the Brexit vote, so harshly criticised in Europe, because it is a winner takes all approach, regardless of the narrowness of the win and with no opportunity for a genuine reflection of the scale of opposition. The European parliament victory that delivered this legislation was thinner than the Brexit vote, only coming about because a handful of MEPs literally defied their political groups by abstaining.

This was a massive disappointment for the farming lobby that was confident of a win. But with member states and European parliament support then, the Brussels blob rushed ahead with the legislation. There will doubtless be demands from the green lobby in the UK for the government to further green its farming policies by following the European lead. There is already a misplaced campaign that attracts unquestioning publicity for rewilding the countryside. Those voices will be raised now to claim the UK is falling behind Europe in their mutual commitment to a net zero carbon balance.

The fact that this is bad legislation for food production and for rural economies will be swept away in the hope that one of the rate gains for farming of not being in the EU can be reversed.