Brussels, 30/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - In Luxembourg on Tuesday 29 June, EU agriculture ministers discussed the simplification of common agricultural policy (CAP) rules. Progress has been made in this over the last few years, through, for example, the CAP health check in 2008. In April 2009, 13 member states put forward 39 suggestions for simplifying the rules and some of these have since been put into practice. The European Commission says that, in 19 areas, concrete action has been taken and amendments to the rules made, for example, with regard to revision of the procedural rules on direct payments.
European Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Cioloº told ministers that further proposals would be made in the “simplification package” to be presented in the autumn and discussed at the Agriculture Council in October. Others will be considered in discussions on the CAP post-2013 when significant political choices will be involved (promotion policy, monitoring and error rate, etc). On cross-compliance matters (to receive aid, farmers have to meet a number of environmental, product quality and animal welfare criteria), Cioloº said in the press conference that he wanted to “have a cross-compliance package for post-2013 which is closer to the reality of what farmers can do”.
In a joint note, 18 countries - Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom - called for simplification to be identified as a key issue in the Commission proposals on the CAP post-2013. These countries call for those suggestions that feature of the list (of 39 suggestions) which are rejected by the Commission, and those which are political in nature, to be discussed by European ministers (or by the Special Committee on Agriculture, which is made up of experts from EU member states). Currently, it is a group of Commission experts which assesses and make recommendations on follow-up steps for the 39 suggestions.
The 18 countries accept that they sometimes have differing views on the future of the CAP after 2013, but they agree that the administrative load burdening farmers and national governments has to be lightened and, hence, that the CAP has to be simplified. The CAP post-2013 must be as efficient as possible, they say in their note. They say, too, that simplification must be one of the benchmarks for the impact analyses which will accompany the Commission communication on the future of the CAP after 2013 (which is expected before the end of this year). CAP simplification must cover the rules which affect other areas, such as animal health and the environment “while maintaining a high degree of protection”, the countries say. They also invite the Commission to simplify rural development programmes.
During the debate, several delegations raised the following issues: - the need for more proportionate measures, especially with regard to monitoring; - the need for cross-compliance rules to be simpler to implement; - the usefulness of a risk-based approach and an impact analysis for legislative measures; - the importance of better coordinating action between agriculture and other areas (environmental and veterinary issues). (L.C./transl.rt)