High hopes: MEPs push to free hemp from national bans

Agriculture-focused MEPs are throwing their weight behind a push to secure EU rules on the cultivation of non-intoxicating cannabis - a move aimed at bypassing national restrictions on the taboo crop.

The European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee (AGRI) backed the move in its position on the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), adopted on Monday. Even though the demand on the European Commission isn't binding, the text urges the executive to set an EU-wide classification for industrial hemp limiting tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the psychoactive component in cannabis – to a maximum of 0.5%.

It adds that “explicitly confirming” the legality of hemp, which is now bound to a mosaic of national rules, could help exploit its potential.

“Hemp cultivation requires relatively few inputs, especially fertilisers, plant protection products and water,” reads the approved amendment, adding that the crop offers “new economic opportunities” for farmers.

The push to squeeze hemp into the text came from MEPs Cristina Guarda (Greens, Italy), Luke Ming Flanagan (The Left, Ireland) and Barry Cowen (Renew, Ireland).

The applications of hemp – a separate variety of the cannabis family to marijuana – range from construction and textile materials to cosmetics and food supplements.

“Hemp has been cultivated in Europe for millennia,” Francesco Mirizzi, managing director at the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA), told Euractiv, adding that it is even used to make car parts now. “It’s light and it’s strong”.

Its flowers, which look and smell like marijuana, have become popular for their high content of cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive compound used in wellness products such as skin creams, sleep drops and stress-relief snacks.

But some member states are wary of CBD and are choosing a hard line on the sector.

“There are still countries that consider [hemp] flowers as narcotics, even though it doesn’t make sense from a legal standpoint,” said Mirizzi. He pointed to a 2020 ruling by the EU’s top court which found that CBD “does not appear to have any psychotropic effect”.

In Italy, Georgia Meloni’s conservative government is leading a charge against CBD.

Italy's CBD pushback

Earlier this year, Rome restricted the cultivation, processing and marketing of hemp flowers under a “security” decree.

The move angered local farmers seeing the profit promise of the crop. “[It] threatens a sector worth half a billion euros, with over three thousand agricultural companies involved,” said Coldiretti, Italy’s main farming lobby.

In its report, the AGRI committee endorsed the use of “the entire” hemp plant for industrial purposes, hinting at the EU court’s ruling and posing a challenge to the Italian ban.

Last month, Italy’s highest court weighed in and said that Italy’s ban also contradicts the EU's CAP, which grants financial support for hemp production under 0.3% THC.

It added that this contradiction could expose Rome to EU infringement procedures.

“The sudden ban on the harvesting of the inflorescences of an agricultural crop authorised for years, impacting a market even encouraged by the EU, would violate the principle of freedom of economic initiative,” reads the opinion.

The European Commission said it received multiple complaints on the Italian ban and was assessing it.

In the meantime, left-wing MEPs are trying to shield hemp from national bans under another legislative initiative. Italian socialists Stefano Bonaccini, Dario Nardella and Camilla Laureti proposed an EU-wide definition of hemp including seeds, fibres and flowers of the plant, as part of the ongoing revision of the Common Markets Organisation (CMO).

Green MEPs Cristina Guarda and the Left’s Luke Ming Flanagan are also pushing on that front.

Guarda hopes that the changes can “immediately cancel” Italy’s security decree without the need to wait for the future CAP comes into force in 2028.

(ssm, jp)

This article has been updated.