Brussels, 23/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - Following technical-level discussions and debate at the last Agriculture Council in mid-May, and taking the view that it would be premature to grant the European Commission delegated powers for including the provisions of the water framework directive within the scope of environmental cross-compliance (payment of direct aid only if certain, principally environmental, criteria are met), the Danish Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers proposed at the Special Committee on Agriculture (CSA) meeting on Monday 21 May to remove all reference to that directive in the over-arching regulation. In its stead, the Presidency proposed a Council statement calling on the Commission to prepare a legislative proposal amending the over-arching regulation when the provisions of the framework directive come into force. With regard to the rural development regulation, the Presidency, in the same line of thought, suggested removing greening requirements from the baseline of payments related application of the water framework directive (Article 34.4).
There was wide support in the CSA for the Presidency proposal. Some countries, including France, Spain, Latvia and Lithuania, also argued that reference to directive on the sustainable use of pesticides (2009/128) should also be removed from environmental cross-compliance. (LC/transl.rt)