22/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - New delegated act related to CAP reform. On Thursday 17 July, the European Commission adopted a delegated act on direct payments which allows greater account to be taken of the contribution of nitrogen-fixing crops in fulfilling the greening obligation of establishing ecological focus areas at farm level (one of the “greening” criteria of direct aid, as part of the reform of the common agriculture policy, CAP). This delegated act aims to increase the weighting factor for areas cultivated with nitrogen-fixing crops from 0.3 to 0.7 with effect from 1 January 2015. The Council and the EP have two months to object to the act. In early April 2014, the Commission undertook to adopt a text of this kind in order to facilitate agreement on the reformed CAP (see EUROPE 11060). (LC)