Brussels, 18/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - The Dutch Presidency of the Council of the EU confirmed on Tuesday 17 May that the issue of simplifying the rules on the greening agricultural aid will be discussed at the next Agriculture Council on 27 June.
The Commission is due to present a report in mid-June on how the principle of the greening of aid is being implemented.
Commissioner Phil Hogan told agriculture ministers that the delegated and implementing acts on wine national support programmes were adopted on 15 April, while those on public intervention and private storage and on import and export licences were adopted on Wednesday 18 May. These acts will come into force once the periods for scrutiny by the Council and the European Parliament (which have two months to reject the text or not to raise any objection) are over. The Commission is currently working on simplifying the rules on fruit and vegetables and on the notifications mechanism used by EU countries. Hogan pointed out, too, that the acts on the review of the administrative penalties system with regard to direct payments (reduced penalties and the “yellow card” system) should come into effect this summer. The Commission is looking to remove obsolete acts from the regulation on the common organisation of the market, reducing the number of acts from 200 to 40 by the end of 2016.
At the Council meeting, some countries, such as Denmark and the United Kingdom, highlighted the complexity of some common agricultural policy (CAP) rules and the need to go further on simplification. Italy said that there was no reason not to review CAP basic acts, while Belgium ruled out any amendment to the basic acts. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)