Brussels, 17/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - The at times difficult task of simplifying the legislation on the common agricultural policy (CAP) is beginning to bear fruit: after listening to the flood of calls from EU agriculture ministers, Commissioner Phil Hogan indicated his willingness on Monday 16 March to set to work on three strands: monitoring crop diversification, the closing date for the submission of aid requests, and the identification and registration of animals.
Latvian Agriculture Minister Janis Duklavs, who currently chairs Agriculture Council meetings, pointed out that he was expecting Council conclusions on simplifying the CAP to be adopted in May. The areas identified as requiring work were, he said, the greening of aid, checks and penalties, and flexibility in implementing rural development programmes. Hogan said that the basic political decisions taken in the 2013 reform had to be respected.
The Portuguese minister, Assunçao Cristas, called for measures that would result in fewer checks on diversification (as part of the greening of aid). The Commission said that, in the context of controls on crops diversification, one useful piece of flexibility would be to be able to set different crop diversification periods for the different regions of a given member state, for example, due to different climatic conditions. “Such an approach could indeed be justified on the basis of clear rules which would ensure controllability, which must remain a key concern in implementing the reform”, commented Hogan. Several countries - Poland, Spain, Finland, Greece, Hungary and Cyprus - supported the Portuguese call.
France, particularly, argued strongly that the legislation should not be reinterpreted in simplification efforts. The French minister expressed the view, in substance, that (European Commission) delegated acts would make the rules more complex, especially in the areas of the greening of aid and coupled aid. Spain said that simplification must not change the rules. It called for simplification in the area of monitoring (a call made by several countries).
Ireland argued that stability and legal certainty had to be maintained.
Greece again called for the eligibility period for the 2007-2013 rural development programmes to be extended.
Extension of date for payment applications. France and some other countries stressed the need to push back the final date for applying for direct payments. The Commission responded favourably (an extension from mid-May to mid-June was suggested, according to our sources). The Commission would like this extension to be applied in all EU countries.
Tolerance on sanctions. Italy argued that, in the first year of the reformed CAP (2015), there would be a high level of error. The Italian agriculture minister, Maurizio Martina, called for a degree of tolerance on applying the rules during this first year. Rome also raised the issue of the complexity of the rules on greening (environmental diversification) and of rural development programmes.
Countries keenest on simplification. The countries of the Visegrad Group (Slovenia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria) made a statement setting out their simplification demands. Poland said it would agree to a review of the basic regulations, if necessary. It called for everything relating to ecologically valuable areas (part of greening) to be simplified.
Germany called for monitoring to be simplified and highlighted the difficulties of implementing the greening of aid (ecologically valuable areas). Germany does not apply the equivalence system in greening because the rules are so complex. It also highlighted the lack of clarity in the definition of active farmer. It suggested opening a wider debate on simplifying the CAP with interested parties, the European Parliament and the EU Court of Auditors. Finland made exactly the same comments on the monitoring of greening (too many checks in the first year). Sweden called for the rules on the greening of aid and on coupled aid for bovine animals to be simplified. The United Kingdom argued for a complete review of the legislation by 2017, particularly the rules on direct payments and on greening. The Netherlands made 41 proposals! It called, inter alia, for fruit and vegetable rules to be simplified. Belgium made a similar call, as did the Visegrad countries. (Lionel Changeur)