After their discussions on direct payments and common organisation of the market (see EUROPE 11957), EU member state agricultural experts turned their attention at the meeting of the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) on Monday 12 February to two further strands of the upcoming reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) which they would like to see radically simplified: green payments and rural development.
The aim was to prepare the discussions in the 19 February Council meeting at which the member states will hold an exchange of views on direct payments, green payments and rural development, with a view to being able to adopt common guidelines on the future of the CAP at the Council meeting on 19 March. The Commission communication proposes granting the member states greater subsidiarity and leeway in implementation, in particular, on payments for environmentally-friendly practices (see EUROPE 11915).
Greening: Commission proposals backed. The European Commission set out its intentions in a little closer detail for the agricultural experts. It proposes replacing the overly complex greening system introduced in the 2013 reform with stronger cross-compliance, assessment which will be results-based rather than standards-based.
Beyond this new common framework, which the Commission wants to be more ambitious than what is currently in place, it will be possible to put additional incentives in place, either under the second pillar as at present, or under the first. How articulation between the two pillars operates will be left to the member states to decide.
Most delegations appear to support this approach as the reference base will really be ambitious, the rules simple and understandable for farmers, with no risk of additional error, and sanctions proportionate. Many of the experts also welcomed an approach that offers incentives to farmers rather than focusing on requirements.
Many also fear that the system does not really simplify the implementation of the rules, in particular for national administrations. Almost all the delegations highlighted what they saw as the crucial importance of flexibility (for example, allowing general rules to be adapted to suit local conditions) and of real simplification. “The new delivery model has potential but the devil is in the detail”, they warn.
Simplifying rural development. The member state experts principally highlighted the complexity of rural development in developing national programmes, implementation and monitoring. Rural development programmes are a key instrument of the CAP, the experts agree, but they need to be simplified, the delegations said, for example, to avoid delays – which have been many since the 2013 reform.
The committee discussed the role of rural development in generational renewal. On this point, however, the experts all brought forward their own proposals: positive discrimination, reducing barriers to entry, improving access to land, raising the age limit, relaxing state aid rules to allow member states to make use of taxation instruments to help young farmers, advice and guidance.
Some also said that a first step would be to better coordinate the many existing tools. (Original version in French)