Brussels, 10/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 9 December, the European Court of Auditors published a special report questioning the effectiveness of cross compliance in agriculture and putting forward a number of recommendations on improvements that could be made to this essential element of common agricultural policy (CAP). Cross compliance has applied since 2005 and links most CAP payments to the respect of certain rules in the areas of environment, health and animal welfare.
The Court concludes that cross compliance, as currently managed by the Commission and implemented by the member states “is not yet effective”. The audit work was achieved at the Commission and in seven member states (Greece, France, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Finland). On-the-spot inspections took place between September and November 2007.
Based on the results of an audit on cross compliance effectiveness, the Court concluded that: - the objectives and the scope of cross compliance are not well defined, making it unclear what cross compliance is designed to achieve; - the legal framework poses considerable difficulties, notably because it is too complex; - cross compliance and rural development are not well adapted to one another; - member states did not take their responsibility to implement effective control and sanction systems. As a consequence, the control system provides insufficient assurance on farmer compliance; - and data provided by the member states on checks and infringements is not reliable and the Commission's performance monitoring was found wanting. The Court recommended that the Commission should, in particular: - develop and detail the objectives set out in the Council regulation in order to formulate them in a “SMART” manner and organise them in a logical hierarchy; - harmonise cross compliance and rural development policies; - draw a clear delineation between cross compliance and agri-environment measures; - amend the control system with a view to controlling at least 1% of the farms applying each obligation; - and implement the key elements of a sound performance monitoring system, notably by defining relevant indicators and baseline levels. (L.C./transl.jl)