Brussels, 01/12/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 30 November, the Council of Ministers of the EU adopted, without debate, a regulation amending regulation 73/2009 establishing common rules for direct support for farmers, to take account of a number of decision taken during the common agricultural policy (CAP) health check (see also EUROPE 10019). The Czech Republic voted against the regulation.
In accordance with Regulation 73/2009, member states wishing to grant, with effect from 2010, specific support measures (Article 68) referred to in that regulation had to take a decision by 1 August 2009 on the use of their national ceiling for financing those measures. The regulation provides for derogation from that deadline in order to allow member states to grant, under certain conditions, specific support from 2010 for farmers in the dairy sector.
Regulation 73/2009 establishes the mechanism of financial discipline whereby the level of direct support is adjusted when the forecasts indicate that the sub-ceiling for market-related expenditure and direct payments will be exceeded, taking account of the €300 million safety margin. This sub-ceiling covers expenditure for direct payments before all transfers to rural development and before modulation. The new regulation states that the expenditure to be compared with the sub-ceiling also includes possible transfers to the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and also possible transfers to EAFRD in the wine sector.
Under Regulation 1782/2003, some member states opted for the implementation of the single payment scheme and for the partial implementation of the single payment scheme in the sheepmeat and goatmeat sector as well as in the beef and veal sector at regional level. The regulation allows decisions on the continuation of the partial implementation of the single payment scheme in these sectors to be made at regional level.
Regulation 73/2009 provides for the allocation of payment entitlements where a farmer in a sector concerned does not hold any payment entitlement. However, this provision does not adequately deal with the situation where the farmer nevertheless declares a number of leased payment entitlements in the first year of integration of the coupled support into the single payment scheme. In that case, the farmer would not be able, or would only be partly able, to activate the new payment entitlements allocated. The regulation, therefore, provides a temporary derogation according to which the farmer concerned should be allocated payment entitlements for the hectares over and above the hectares declared to activate the leased payment entitlements and/or the payment entitlements which attract a payment without any declaration of the corresponding hectares. This derogation should be limited to the situation where a farmer continues to work in agriculture. (L.C./transl.rt)