On Friday 15 March, the European Commission will propose “temporary and targeted” adjustments to the regulations on the strategic plans implementing the Common Agricultural Policy 2023-2027, “in order to address certain difficulties” encountered by EU farmers, according to a draft explanatory memorandum explaining the legislative proposal.
The Commission intends to “maintain and defend the general approach of the current CAP and its role in supporting the transition of European agriculture towards sustainable agriculture”.
The adjustments would focus on: - changes that benefit farmers by reducing their administrative burden; - flexibilities that allow national administrations to adapt implementation to farmers’ situations; - changes in the balance between conditionality requirements and voluntary programmes to encourage green practices; - guaranteed policy stability for beneficiaries over the life of the strategic plans.
The changes concern the rules on the conditionality of aid.
Member States would be allowed to provide for specific derogations from the standards relating to good agricultural and environmental conditions (GAEC) 5, 6 and 7 in “situations where there is a risk that the requirements would run counter to their objectives, for instance due to specific agronomic situations for crops on specific soil types and pedoclimatic conditions”.
The Commission is proposing to remove from GAEC 8 the obligation to devote a minimum proportion of arable land to non-productive areas (set-aside) or features (hedges, trees, etc.), while maintaining the protection of existing landscape features. Member States would be required to establish an ‘eco-scheme’ offering support to farmers for maintaining part of their arable land in a non-productive state or creating new landscape features.
With regard to GAEC 7 (crop rotation), the Commission is proposing to retain crop rotation, but to allow Member States to add the possibility of meeting this requirement through crop diversification. The Commission argues that this indirectly encourages crop rotation from one year to the next. As part of the eco-schemes, more ambitious forms of crop rotation and diversification are and should continue to be rewarded, in particular by including protein crops in the rotation, so as to improve soil quality and the resilience of agriculture.
The application of the standard relating to soil cover during sensitive periods (GAEC 6) has led to “considerable administrative rigidity” and uncertainty for farmers. The Commission proposes to specify that the implementation of this standard will be primarily the responsibility of the Member States.
It is also proposed to increase (from one to two) the number of requests for changes to the CAP strategic plan that a Member State can submit per year.
It is also proposed to remove the requirement for Member States to assess whether their CAP strategic plans need to be amended in the event of changes to certain EU environmental and climate legislation.
The Commission suggests exempting small farmers with an agricultural area of no more than 10 hectares from conditionality controls and penalties. The aim is to reduce the administrative burden of controls, which is higher for small farms than for larger ones.
The Commission will also adopt a document on the food supply chain, obtained by Agence Europe (https://aeur.eu/f/bak ), which provides for rapid measures (monitoring of production costs and margins) and short-term measures (changes to provisions on contracts, strengthening of producer organisations, etc.).
European Council to take stock. The crisis facing Europe’s agricultural sector will be one of the topics on the agenda of the EU’s heads of State or government on 21 and 22 March in Brussels.
According to draft conclusions (dated 11 March), the European Council will invite the Commission and the EU Council to take work forward without delay in four areas: - “all possible short-term measures”, including those aimed at reducing the administrative burden and making life easier for farmers; - strengthening the position of farmers in the food supply chain, in particular to ensure that they receive a fair income; - fair competition at global level and in the internal market; - the “fair and balanced” treatment of autonomous trade measures for Ukraine (see EUROPE 13369/12).
Read the European Council’s draft conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/baa (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)