Brussels, 16/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - The Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations in the EU (COPA) and the General Confederation of Agricultural Cooperatives in the EU (COGECA) recently sent the German Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers, the European Commission and the European Parliament a document setting out 50 ways of 'technically simplifying' the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The two organisations broadly support, with a few corrections, all of the measures set out in the European Commission's October 2006 action plan for simplifying the CAP but oppose the idea of setting up a single common organisation of the market, arguing that 'legislative simplification must under no circumstances be used as a pretext to weaken existing market management instruments.'
COPA and COGECA make 50 suggestions for CAP simplification based on clearer rules, less red tape, better coordination, reasonable inspections and revised sanctions. They back the twenty concrete measures put forward by the Commission in its action plan except number 18 on horizontal rules for the management of import tariffs for farm products under certain import systems. The farming groups' main suggestions:
Environmental protection: - rules for using cereals for hearing should be the same as for wood and straw; - harmonising on-label recommendations for the use of plant protection products across the EU.
Animal farming: - sheep or goats found during inspections to have only one ear tag should be considered as identified; - scrapping the obligation to keep a register for cattle, sheep and goats at a far where a national central database is proven to work properly; - authorising the use of a stamp for sows and boars throughout the EU; - starting in 2008, accompanying documents for sheep should list each animal's ear tag number; - simplifying the retention period for goats and sheep that has to be respected by farmers if they want to claim 'coupled aid' for these animals; - extending being able to keep one pig for on-farm consumption only to one sheep or goat as well in the relevant countries; - simplifying veterinary medicine documentation rules; - harmonising the status of veterinary products like iron supplements and homeopathic medicines at EU level and harmonising access to veterinary medicines; - shortening minimum times for keeping receipts of veterinary medicines.
Application for aid and payments: - the single farm payment (aid) period should run from 16 October to 31 March; - the EU should set a compulsory deadline for national administrations when sending out application forms for the single farm payment; - increasing the tolerance level for errors when determining the area eligible for aid and for non-serious errors; - scrapping the link between coupled and decoupled aid when sanctions involve a cut or withdrawal of aid; - landscape elements like hedgerows and walls should be included in the eligible surface area for decoupled aid; - allowing farmers in all member states to mow land under set-aside before the flowering of weed to prevent weed spreading to adjacent fields; - allowing member states to modify the percentage of retention for the 'national envelopes for quality production'.
Cross-compliance: - minor technical breaches of cross-compliance should be addressed by means of warning letters; - inspectors should give 14 days warning of cross-compliance controls; - a phasing-in period for new member states of cross-compliance rules; - introducing voluntary EU-wide guidelines for recognition of reputable Quality Assurance Schemes (QAS); - an EU-wide cross-compliance control rate of 1% of farm businesses even where national law requires different percentage of controls; - clearer sanctions for violation of cross-compliance (noting that only an actual immediate threat to food safety or animal protection would lead to the application of sanctions); - inspections should be conducted within one uninterrupted visit; - cutting the time data has to be kept from the current five years.
On the creation of a single CMO, COPA and COGECA note that the 'Single CMO must not create a situation where the individual CMOs, taking into account the specificities of each sector… are weakened in any way' since the individual CMOs stabilise markets, ensure fair living standards for farmers and increase farm productivity. The farm organisations argue that the Commission's current Single CMO proposal would weaken the first pillar of the CAP and call on the Council to take their 'grave concerns' into account. They want the Commission to revise its proposal and publish a new draft before it is discussed again at Council level. (lc)