Finland – backed by Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Sweden and the Netherlands – believes the new, strengthened conditionality provisions proposed by the European Commission are too complex (see EUROPE 12039).
The matter will be discussed in Brussels on Monday 16 July by the EU agriculture ministers (see related article). Within the framework of the proposals on Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post-2020, the Commission has proposed that measures for the greening of direct aid payments, introduced during the 2013 reform, should be fully integrated into aid conditionality in order to enhance compliance with environment and climate requirements.
Nonetheless, Finland takes the view that it is necessary to simplify these conditionality requirements and to reduce the number of such requirements “to include only those common rules that are relevant and necessary for all farmers in all member states across the EU, so that environmental effectiveness is achieved through a results-based approach based on incentives and targeted payments”, it is stated in a memo with a view to the debate at the Agriculture Council on Monday.
This type of more results-oriented approach would be both simpler and more effective. By providing incentives for farmers, targeted measures could be more ambitious and cost-effective in achieving the EU’s objectives on environment, climate change and biodiversity, the Finnish memo states. Finland considers that conditionality “reduces the policy’s effectiveness” as it limits member states’ margin of manoeuvre for developing targeted interventions tailored to specific national and regional needs. “Member states must have sufficient room to decide on effective measures for their situation and to design a simple policy for the benefit of farmers, member states, the Union and the environment”, Finland concludes. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)