Brussels, 13/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - As announced earlier (EUROPE 9497), the European Commission adopted, on Thursday 13 September, a proposal allowing temporary suspension of the obligation on farmers to set aside 10% of their land. The proposal, which should be adopted by the member states very swiftly (after consultation of the European Parliament), aims to make up for part of the shortage of certain raw materials on the European market.
Mariann Fischer Boel, Commissioner for Agriculture, has agreed to fix the rate of compulsory set-aside at 0%, for seeding this autumn and in spring 2008. She thus meets concerns raised by the European farming world due to the rise in price of certain raw materials (cereals). Reducing the set-aside rate from 10% to 0% is expected to increase output by at least 10-17 million tonnes of cereals next year. The Commission explains that fixing the rate at 0% in 2008 does not compel farmers to use their land if they do not wish to and they may leave it fallow.
The future of the set-aside system will be covered by discussions to begin in November on the CAP “Health Check”. DG Agriculture's services are in favour of doing away with this obligation but explain that the EU will analyse how to safeguard the positive effects that the system has on the environment (such as preservation of soil fertility and animal and plant biodiversity).
The Commission points out that, in EU countries, cereal harvests in 2006 were disappointing (265.5 million tonnes) entailing an unprecedented rise in market prices. Intervention stocks melted, going from 14 million tonnes at the beginning of the 2006-2007 harvest year to about one million tonnes at the present time (mainly maize held in Hungary). According to estimates, the 2007 harvest should be less than last year's harvest due to the bad climate conditions this spring and summer. This outlook is likely to lead to a further reduction in the EU of private cereal stocks by the end of the 2007-2008 harvesting year.
The current set-aside scheme, introduced in 1988 to restrict Union cereal production, became compulsory after the CAP reform in 1992. The compulsory rate of set-aside was initially decided every year but, in 1999-2000, it was set permanently at 10% for simplification purposes. Since the last reform in 2003, farmers have received set-aside entitlements, and there is now a 3.8 million hectare surface area of set-aside land in the EU.
In the new member states that opted for a single area payment scheme (SAPS), farmers are exempted from the set-aside obligation. The ten countries making this choice are: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Romania. (lc)