The European Commission responded yesterday to the protests of European farmers, supported by their respective national governments, and proposed a series of quickly implemented reforms to alleviate the “burden” that the latest review of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has placed, especially for many small farms, and thus facilitate the collection of community aid.
The measures will be debated on Monday in Brussels by the European Agriculture Ministers, who in some cases propose reviewing parts of the legislation, adopted just two years ago, in December 2021. The Community Executive does not rule out doing so but only in the medium term and always that it is about applying “limited changes” that “can be adopted relatively soon” by the Council and the European Parliament.
“The message from European farmers is clear: they want to work in the fields, not be trapped by paperwork. In response, the Commission has identified several actions at European level that can help alleviate the administrative burden over the coming months and years,” said the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, after sending his proposals to the capitals of the Twenty-Seven.
The document, to which La Vanguardia has had access, proposes short-term measures such as reviewing the minimum requirements for good environmental practices required to collect direct payments from the CAP, in addition to easing the requirements during “sensitive periods”, online with the proposal raised a few weeks ago to eliminate the condition of keeping 4% of arable land fallow. Current conditionality requirements can be “difficult to implement”, they admit.
The European Commission also sees it possible to reduce "by up to 50% the number of control visits that national inspectors must make to agricultural holdings" to verify the correct use of community funds, a widespread demand in different countries. The idea is to rely on satellite images captured by the European Copernicus system.
Brussels offers to provide more flexibility and clarity when determining the concept of “force majeure” and the exceptional circumstances that can be evoked in certain situations, such as floods or periods of drought, so as not to stop receiving aid. It also proposes analyzing with member states formulas to “rationalize” controls to limit the administrative burden on farmers, in addition to eliminating, for example, the penalty if they make an involuntary error when filling out a form. The document also recalls that the current CAP, which came into force on January 1, 2023, offers ”considerable flexibility” to member states to design their national strategic plans and some of the complaints raised by farmers can be resolved at that level. , instead of in the European one.
In the medium term, “the Commission could consider proposing changes to the current basic regulation of the CAP,” states the document, which opens the door, for example, to exempting farms of less than 10 hectares from environmental conditionality controls, a measure that could make the lives of millions of farmers easier. “It would mean an important simplification since it would affect 65% of the CAP beneficiaries,” but “without significantly affecting environmental ambitions, since these farms only represent 9.6% of the areas that receive aid,” he states. .
The European Parliament dissolves in April and the current Commission will cease on December 1, hence the limited prospects of approving major changes in the short term. The Belgian presidency of the Council, which will moderate Monday's debates, considers that the changes have to go "beyond simplification" and respond to "more structural issues and think about a roadmap" for possible future changes, diplomatic sources explained. , who clarified that they do not propose reopening legislation that has just been adopted, such as the law on soil quality.
The Agriculture Ministers of the Twenty-Seven will not be the only ones who travel to Brussels on Monday to make their dissatisfaction with the application of the CAP heard. As during the last summit of European leaders, around 1,500 tractors are expected to arrive at the European quarter, which this time have agreed with the police to be able to move around the Council headquarters (on their last visit they had to stay in the European Parliament area).
