Brussels, 09/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 4 May, the European Commission adopted a delegated act with regard to the integrated administration and control system (IACS) and conditions for refusal or withdrawal of payments and administrative penalties applicable to direct payments, rural development support and cross compliance.
The simplification of the Common Agricultural Policy has been identified by Commissioner Hogan as one of the key political priorities for his mandate. The simplification proposals contained in this Delegated Act is part of the third wave of simplification for direct payments.
The main legal elements of this Delegated Act are as follows: update of the content of the system for the identification and registration of payment entitlements; extension of the derogation for final dates or latest possible dates as a complement to the introduction of the system of preliminary checks; extension of the principle, where relevant, that a farmer should not be subject to penalties for over-declarations in cases where there is no possible advantage to be gained from this over-declaration due to a maximum limit in terms of e.g. hectares or number of animals on which the payment may be granted; amendment of the notion of "crop group" for certain schemes and measures for the purpose of clarification, to take into account the cases of graduation of the payment and cases where degressive aid amounts are used; simplifying the system of administrative penalties in case of over-declaration of area in respect of the schemes or support measures where effective administrative crosschecks with the identification system for agricultural parcels (LPIS) can be carried out and where retro-active recovery is possible. For these schemes, introduction of a system of reduced penalties through a "yellow card" for first offender in respect of minor over-declarations; clarification of a specific rule regarding the calculation of reduction of the greening payment; clarification and simplification of administrative penalties system for “animal” bonuses.
Most of the measures contained in this Act are expected to be applicable as from claim year 2016, except for a few of them which will apply retroactively as from claim year 2015.
The first wave of simplification related to eligibility conditions in relation to the identification and registration requirements for animals under voluntary coupled support and deadlines for the aid application in 2015, whereas the second wave focused on changes of the IACS guidelines, which could be effective already for claim year 2015.
The delegated act is submitted to the EP and Council because they have the right to officially object within a two-month objection period. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)