Brussels, 27/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - On 27 October, the European Commission adopted two proposals, a decision and a regulation, aiming to modify annexes of the Act of Accession of the ten member states that will joint the EU on 1 May 2004 and the regulations concerning the implementation Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform agreed upon last June, in order for it to apply to an enlarged EU.
For the Commission, this concerns a 'balanced' and 'fair' package that fully retains the spirit, nature and fundamental principals of the final accession negotiations agreement concluded on December 2002 in Copenhagen. We believe that the proposals are in accordance with the spirit and substance of the Copenhagen agreement. There is no question of reopening the accession negotiations - which would be in nobody's interest -, but simply of adapting these results to the CAP reform, as is explicitly foreseen by a provision of the accession treaty, asserts the Commission. The latter underlines that 'the terms of accession are maintained' and calls for realism from the future members: the governments of the new members must take into consideration the entirety of the package proposed, and not only the points that are possibly unfavourable towards them. The Commission is confident that the Council will be able to approve two proposals before 1 May, after a relatively rapid discussion, so that the reformed CAP may apply to the entire enlarged Community from the first day of enlargement. However, the timetable will also depend upon the European Parliament, which will have to provide its assent on one of the two proposals. In both cases, the acceding countries will be consulted, in accordance with the rights conferred upon them within the framework of the information and consultation procedure.
Modification of Act of Accession
In order to maintain the general approach taken concerning direct payments in Copenhagen, the proposal foresees that the new direct payments introduced in the framework of the CAP reform (for energy crops, nuts and dairy) would be subject to the same phasing-in schedule as all other direct payments (25% in 2004, 30% in 2005, 35% in 2006 and up to 100% from 2013…). In the framework of the CAP reform, a de-coupled Single Payment Scheme will be introduced from 2005 onwards, in the EU 15. However, the proposal retains the option for the new member states to apply, until 2008, a hectare-based Single Area Payment Scheme (SAPS, agreed upon during the accession negotiations and which is simpler than the classical direct payment scheme). As of 2009, the new member states will only be able to opt for the single area payment scheme (that agreed upon during the reform last June).
The proposals retained the principal of national topping-up direct payments. These measures can be applied in the framework of the classical scheme until the end of 2006, in the framework of the SAPS until the end of 2008 and in the framework of the new single area payment scheme as of 2005.
In the milk sector, the changes stemming from the CAP reform lead to somewhat significant modifications (though technical) to the Act of Accession, with regards to, for example, the reference period for the reduction of individual reference quantities leading to the payment of a subsidy, the reference fat content or even the delivery and direct sale quotas.
This draft decision requires unanimous Council assent, following opinion from the European Parliament (expected in February or March 2004).
Modification of drafts for CAP reform
The starting point for this draft regulation (which is expected o be adopted by the Council by qualified majority, without the Parliament giving its verdict on the matter) is that the new single payment system poses a problem for new Member States, given that it not possible to calculate eligibility for payments to farmers on the basis of the same historic reference period as that of the EU-15 (2000-02). Consequently, the proposal predicts that the new Member States apply the "regional implementation strategy" introduced by the CAP for the current EU. This means that in a given area that uniform per-hectare entitlements would be granted within any one region from regional financial envelopes (the level of the per-hectare payment would be calculated by dividing the regional envelope by the regional utilised agricultural area, minus areas of permanent crops and forests). The regional envelopes themselves would be calculated by dividing the national envelope between regions. A national reserve, out of which additional entitlements could be granted for sector specific issues, would be set at 3% of the national ceiling, as for the current Member States. Additional resources could also be channelled to farmers in specific sectors such as organic farming.
On cross compliance (aid granted on condition that certain criteria are respected), farmers in the new member states will become subject to the CAP reform rules from 2005 onwards. The proposal foresees two exceptions. 1), the transition periods negotiated by some countries, for example that concerning implementation of the Habitat directive, will remain intact. 2), for those new member state choosing to apply the SAPS, the existing cross-compliance arrangements of the “old” CAP remain as a baseline, but the new CAP reform rules are not compulsory (compulsory for the current EU since decisions on reforms in June). As regards financial discipline and modulation of aid (reduction of aid to increase rural development funding policy, new states will not be affected as they do not benefit from 100% of direct aid and therefore not before 2013.
In the milk sector Slovenia and Poland have obtained a transition period of one year for the allocation of individual milk quotas. For Poland the response of the Commission is clear: it intends to apply the SPS, the payments for dairy products ware already included in the national envelope and directed to this system. As for Slovenia, which is likely to opt for the 'classical' direct payments system, the new coupled dairy payments for 2004 be granted on the basis of the provisionally allocated quotas or on the basis of the milk delivered.
The Commission also believes that the new accession countries which are large producers of rye could, in order to gain compensation for the end of using this cereal (decided in June) could use the amount in the rural development framework to encourage diversification of regions and producers affected. In the protein plants sector, the maximum guaranteed area of the EU-15, 1.4 million hectares will be increased to 200,000 ha in order to take into account the new Member States. Maximum guaranteed areas will be increased in the same way to take in to consideration of the ten new Member States' production.