Brussels, 23/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - The high-level group responsible for pushing forward negotiations on reform of the Common Agricultural Policy was unable to achieve significant progress over four rather technical issues that it examined on Thursday afternoon. Moreover, to prepare the meeting of the Agriculture Council on Monday and Tuesday, the Greek Presidency drafted with the Member States within this group a questionnaire on the most important policy issues that the ministers will have to tackle (see other story).
Below is a summary of the group's high-level works, whose next meeting is scheduled for 5 and 6 June:
- Conditionality of aids: A majority of delegations wanted to go further in reducing the size of the list of regulations needing to be modified to take account of the principal of conditionality (granting of aid to farmers on condition of respecting certain ecological, animal welfare requirements as well as quality and safety). It has already been agreed, at technical level and during the Special Agriculture Committee (SAC) last Monday, to reduce this list from 38 to 18, but this seems insufficient for some Member States. Thus, during the high-level group, Spain and Italy suggested removing certain environmental criteria; France, Portugal and Austria called for the removal of certain criteria concerning public and animal health arguing that they would already be covered by other regulations. On the contrary, other delegations, such as the United Kingdom or Sweden wanted to once more introduce new criteria that are not contained in the 18, notably in the fields of animal health standards (for laying hens) or safety.
- Most of the Member States favoured a phasing-in of the principal of conditionality for aid, but the Member States remain divided over the implementation date, according to some suggestions between 2005 and 2007. France, Belgium and Austria favour 2006.
- Management and control of aid: The Commission wants to establish an integrated administration and control system (IACS) at the national level that will determine a number of operators to be inspected, specialised control bodies (social affairs, justice, health, veterinary…) undertaking controls on the basis of this sample and passing on their report to the paying body if failures are noted. The paying body will be responsible for enforcing sanctions proportionate to the infringements to agricultural legislation. Raising the issue of respect for the principal of subsidiarity, most of the delegations feel that the duty of control belongs with the existing control authorities and not the paying body. Germany, Finland, Belgium and Spain called for a reduction in the number of proposed samples of controlled operations (2.5%). Many delegations are opposed to the integration of conditionality rules within the IACS (Spain, France, Austria, Luxembourg and Sweden) notably due to the administrative complexity. However, the Netherlands is favourable to the idea. The United Kingdom is opting for a simple system and one which respects the competences of the competent control authorities.
- Set-aside of land: A large majority of Member States call for maintaining the status quo (setting aside land according to a system of rotation of 10% for cereals, oil seeds and protein plants), while the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands feel that it would be illogical to retain such a system of setting aside land if the aids in this sector must be decoupled from production.
- Agricultural advice system: The Presidency is suggesting the introduction of this system on an elective basis for the Member States and the producers (the Commission wants to make it compulsory) as of 2006 (instead of 2004 as proposed by the Commission). As of 2007, referral to agricultural advice will be obligatory for the Member States and for the producers receiving more than EUR 15,000 per year in direct aid (or whose turnover is above EUR 100,000 per year). It remains optional for the smallest producers. Several delegations opposed this compromise solution (France, Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg, Austria and Ireland).