On Friday 12 April, the European Commission presented the preliminary results of its simplification survey for farmers, which shows that farmers spend more than six days a year dealing with administrative formalities.
The survey, launched on 7 March, received almost 27,000 responses. It is part of the actions taken by the Commission to address farmers’ concerns (see EUROPE 13389/21).
Of the respondents, 81% were farmers applying for support from the common agricultural policy (CAP), while the remainder were farmers not applying for this type of support.
33% of respondents spend more than six days a year on administrative tasks related to CAP applications. 78% of farmers applying for CAP aid also use outside help to prepare and submit their aid applications, according to the survey.
Half of the people surveyed applying for CAP support do not use mobile devices to provide geotagged photos to the authorities.
Regarding on-site checks over the last three years, 36% of the farms covered in the survey were visited once, while 16% of farms were visited at least three times. The Commission announced that it will simplify the methodology of certain checks in order to reduce the number of on-farm visits by national administrations by 50%.
Link to presentation of results: https://aeur.eu/f/br9 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)