Brussels, 07/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 11 May, the agriculture ministers of the member states of the EU will be in a position to adopt conclusions on the simplification of the new common agriculture policy (CAP). At this stage, the Council is rejecting any idea of completely reworking the current base rules partway through the procedure.
This text, which was bitterly fought out by the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA), is the result of a compromise between the member states which want an early revision of the CAP reform and those wishing to stick to the political agreements of 2013.
On 4 May, the experts at the SCA hammered out a compromise on the text of the conclusions on the simplification of the CAP, which the ministers will therefore be able to adopt at their meeting of 11 May. An earlier draft text put forward by the Latvian Presidency of the Council invited the European Commission to prepare a mid-term review of the basic acts in 2017. This sentence has been removed, because a considerable number of member states feel that such a revision would be too soon (France, Belgium, Austria, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Slovakia and others). A second group of countries (Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, the United Kingdom, amongst others), which want to take the simplification exercise as far as possible, proposed instead a full examination, in 2016, of the measures implemented by then, possibly leading to amendments to the margin of the basic acts.
An “evaluation” in 2016
Finally, the compromise stresses that “in the longer term, based on the experience gained during the first years of full CAP implementation, certification efforts should also be made as regards the basic acts”. The Commission is invited to “present simplification initiatives in the autumn of 2015 (…) and to consider further simplification initiatives in due course”, the Council committing itself to “assessing in 2016, on the basis of Commission input, the progress made regarding CAP simplification”. The text put before the Council also states that the simplification should preserve the “policy objectives and the main elements of the reformed CAP, as well as ensuring legal stability for farmers” and that a certain amount of “flexibility” should be built into the first year of implementation.
Greening and market measures: more flexibility for the member states
The compromise then goes on to list a series of “short- and medium-term priorities”. Concerning direct payments, “more flexibility” will be given to the member states for the implementation of the greening measures, “particularly the application of the rules on permanent grassland, requirement for a period of crop diversification, definitions of the types of ecological focus areas and the requirements for equivalent practices”.
As regards the common market organisation, the text argues the need to “streamline marketing standards in order to eliminate unnecessary burdens, acknowledging the significant simplification already carried out under the reform in the fruit and vegetable sector in 2008”; the requirements for the operational programmes and producer organisations in this sector should also be streamlined.
The text also calls for “greater flexibility for member states' implementation in removing unnecessary rules and procedures concerning safety net measures such as private storage and public intervention”, as well as “assessing the legal feasibility of making the application of crisis instruments optional for member states when only small volumes of products are involved”.
“Avoidance of multiple controls”
For rural development, preparing and approving programmes should be simplified, the text argues, and “no conditions should be added during the programme approval process which are not foreseen in the applicable legislation”. Lastly, for the cross-cutting rules of the CAP, the compromise suggests that a “more proportional and risk-based approach should apply to controls”, with the “avoidance of multiple controls of greening requirements as well as other support schemes and measures”. The text also calls for “proportional reductions and administrative penalties in cases of greening non-compliance, in particular regarding minor infringements”. (Lionel Changeur)