Brussels, 14/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 14 April, the Council of Ministers of the EU decided not to issue any objections to the 11 delegated acts on the implementation of the common agriculture policy (CAP).
This means that these texts have now been adopted by the Council. The Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) met on Monday morning to take note of the fact that the countries of the EU have approved these texts, which add to the four basic acts reforming the CAP, adopted by the European Parliament and the Council on 13 December 2013.
The adoption of the delegated acts is the final stage in the reform process. The member states will now be able to draft rules at national level with a view to implementing the new CAP from January 2015. In the absence of objections from the Council and the EP, the delegated acts will be published at the same time as the corresponding implementing measures, to allow the member states to adopt the conditions for the implementation of the reformed CAP at national or regional level.
The eleven delegated acts which come on top of the four basic regulations establish rules for: - direct payments; - the integrated management and control system, conditions for payments to be refused or withdrawn and administrative sanctions applicable to the direct payments, support for rural development and conditionality; - requirements for agricultural products to benefit from private storage aid; - the fruit and vegetables and processed fruit and vegetables sectors; - aid to the accompanying measures in the framework of a programme to promote the consumption of fruit and vegetables in schools; - aid programmes in the sectors of olive oil and table olives; - measures in the framework of national aid programmes in the wine-making sector; - support for rural development; - the paying entities and other entities, financial management, clearance of accounts, guarantees and the use of the euro; - public intervention expenditure; - the linear reduction of payments in 2014, and financial discipline for the calendar year 2014.
Statement by the Commission. In a statement adopted on 2 April by the College of Commissioners (Ed: last-minute concessions granted to the EP by the Commission, which made it possible to avoid the MEPs' rejection of certain acts), the Commission undertakes to carry out an in-depth assessment of the experience acquired in the implementation of the obligations on areas of ecological interest in the framework of the obligations for the greening of aid, following the first year of application. In particular, the Commission will ensure that the administrative burden resulting from the application of the areas of ecological interest for both the authorities and producers in the member states will be limited to the absolute minimum necessary and that the procedures are simplified, including those on ditches. An assessment of the situation will also be carried out, particularly regarding equal treatment, as a result of the implementation of the areas of ecological interest in the various member states and, if necessary, solutions to any problems observed will be discussed. In the event that the requirements on respect for the obligations arising from the areas of ecological interest should lead to a considerable reduction of the EU's production potential, the Commission will revise the delegated act in question. Additionally, the Commission undertakes to adopt the delegated act to modify the delegated act on direct payments in order to increase the weighting coefficient of the areas of ecological interest for areas given over to the cultivation of nitrogen-fixing plants, raising it from 0.3 to 0.7 as of 1 January 2015.
Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union allows the legislator (in this case, the European Parliament and the Council) to delegate to the Commission the power to adopt non-legislative acts of a general scope to add to or change certain non-essential elements of a legislative act (quasi-legislative acts). The legal acts adopted by the Commission in this way are known as “delegated acts” (Article 290, paragraph 3). The Commission prepares and adopts delegated acts on the basis of the expertise of, amongst others, the authorities of the member states ultimately responsible for the implementation of the acts, and the opinions of experts from the European Parliament. The delegated acts are subjected to ex-post controls, carried out by both the Council representing the member states and by the European Parliament. The delegated acts may enter into force only if no objection has been made by these two institutions - both legislators effectively have a right of veto. In addition, the European Parliament or the Council can revoke the powers delegated to the Commission at any time. (LC)