Brussels, 03/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - The technical level discussions on the internal convergence aspect (new distribution of direct aid) of the common agricultural policy (CAP) reform, which were held in the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) on Monday 1 October, proved complicated, as the EU countries have widely differing points of view.
For direct payments, the Commission proposes reaching a uniform level of rights to direct payments (basic payment) at national or regional level by 2019.
Several member states (Ireland, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg and Portugal) were concerned about the impact on individual farms of reallocating decoupled aid, which this convergence would lead to, and they advocated a mechanism limiting the extent of each farm's gains and losses. These countries agree on moving towards a direct income support more fairly distributed between farmers by reducing the link to historical references, but they question the proposed approach based on a national or regional flat-rate. These member states add that the diversity and complexity of agriculture in the countries requires greater flexibility for member states in an almost fully decoupled system of direct payments. The countries have produced a joint document presenting their position, which met with the support of other countries like France and Greece.
Another group of countries (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia) produced a different joint document, also requesting a certain amount of flexibility in implementing the internal convergence measures and exploring several solutions - especially deferring the end of the transition period to 2021, and putting the new and old countries on the same level.
Some countries - like Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom - defended the Commission's initial timetable although they recognise the need for some flexibility.
Rural development. The SCA also discussed the regulation on rural development - particularly the subjects of investment in agricultural holdings and the ex-ante conditions. Following the discussion already held in the SCA on 10 September, the Presidency proposed an amendment to Article 18 of the rural development regulation. A time limit of 36 months would be given for investment support when farms have to conform to new standards (a prolongation of the current system). In the Presidency's opinion this would allow these standards to be respected while guaranteeing investment, whereas the Commission provides in its proposal for the investment aid to be linked to respect of the new standards - in a word, no respect, no investment.
The majority of delegations supported the Presidency's proposal. However, a blocking minority (including Denmark, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands), with the Commission's support, consider that it is abnormal to give a new time limit of 36 months to allow standards that are already binding - and which should be implemented - to be applied. These delegations highlighted a risk of competition distortion.
The Commission provides for the respect of ex ante conditions before planning implementation of the rural development funds, cohesion funds and structural funds. The Commission's proposal on the common strategic framework (CSF) defines investment priorities and programme key actions which will be supported not only by the cohesion funds and structural funds, but also by the EAFRD (rural development) and the EMFF (fishing). Annex IV provides for the general ex ante conditions (including non-discrimination, men/women equality and handicap) that are applied to all funds. In addition, some specific ex ante conditions apply to rural development - conditions linked to some of the specific priorities of the rural development fund, and horizontal conditions which apply to several priorities of the rural development fund.
The majority of countries in the SCA defended the position established by the Danish Presidency on this subject - in other words, the removal of the reference to the CSF general conditions in the proposal for a regulation on rural development. Just a few countries (United Kingdom, Italy and Austria) considered that the reference to the CSF general conditions would guarantee that the rural development fund obey the same rules as other funds.
Horizontal regulation. The Commission proposes that all the penalties applicable in case of non respect of the prescribed obligations in the various sectoral regulations should be established in the horizontal regulation. Article 66 of the proposal does not apply to the integrated administration and control system (IACS) which enables direct payments (including greening and environmental cross-compliance) to be monitored. The vast majority of countries (including Denmark, Poland, Spain, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Germany) requested the inclusion of the basic principles governing the type of penalties (for whom, for what infringement, and what type of penalty to apply) in the basic act, whilst the implementation details would be left to the Commission by means of implementing acts (and not delegated acts as the Commission requested). (LC/transl.fl)