Brussels, 12/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - According to a provisional version of the report it is expected to adopt on 28 March, the European Commission is to propose minor adjustments to the cross compliance system in agricultural aid, set up by Agenda 2000 and extended by the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 2003. In particular, it suggests relaxing arrangements when the infringements committed by farmers are not serious.
The principle of cross compliance of direct aid makes the award of direct aid dependent on compliance with 19 Community rules on the environment, food safety, animal and plant health, and animal welfare. Cross compliance applies to all direct payments, whether decoupled or not, and to eight rural development aid measures (second pillar of the CAP). Under the terms of Article 6 of the September 2003 regulation (common rules for CAP direct aid schemes), any infringement of regulatory management requirements or good agricultural and environmental conditions, either by omission or commission, which can be directly attributed to the farmer, will result in the full amount in direct payments for the calendar year in which the infringement took place being reduced or withdrawn.
The Commission report takes stock of the implementation of cross compliance in 2005: - nearly 241,000 on-the-spot checks were carried out by the authorities of EU member states on just under 5% of farmers affected by cross compliance; - reductions in payments were applied for 11.9% of farmers subject to on-the-spot checks; - in member states applying full cross compliance, 71% of detected instances of non-compliance related to the identification and registration of cattle (with 10% relating to infringements of the Nitrates Directive) - reductions in agricultural aid resulting from infringement of the subsidiarity principle amounted to €9.84 million across the EU; - 68% (and up to 98% in some member states) of reductions in direct payments were applied at the minimum level of 1% (14% were applied at the 3% level and 12% at the 5% level).
In its report, the Commission indicates its desire to bring forward the following amendments to the 2003 regulation on the direct aid scheme: - simplification of the 10-month rule, which requires farmers to declare the land which is at their disposal for a period of ten consecutive months in order to be able to be eligible for agricultural aid; - granting new member states (the ten new members except Slovenia and Malta) subject to the single area payment scheme (a simplified version of decoupled payments) a three-year transition period beginning 2009 for the introduction of statutory management requirements.
In addition, the Commission proposes to submit several proposals to simplify the cross-compliance system to the direct payments management committee: - allowing member states not to pursue farmers whose failures to meet obligations are very minor (with a letter of warning being sent, however); - not applying aid reduction of less than €50; - exemption from the minimum 1% payment reduction for farmers receiving less than €5,000 in aid (this would affect almost three quarters of EU farmers); - harmonisation of control rates across member states; - introduction of advanced notice (between 48 hours and 14 days) of on-the-spot checks; - clarification of the timing of on-the-spot checks; - improved selection of the control samples). (lc)