Special Report No 26/2016: Making cross‑compliance more effective and achieving simplification remains challenging

Summary:

Cross-compliance applies to 7.5 million farmers and links most CAP payments (around 47 billion euro in 2015) to farmers’ compliance with basic rules for the environment, food safety, animal health and welfare, and good agricultural and environmental conditions.

We concluded that the information available did not allow the Commission to assess adequately the effectiveness of cross-compliance. The performance indicators did not take into account the level of non-compliance by farmers and the Commission did not analyse the reasons for the infringements.

Even though the changes in the CAP for the period 2014–2020 reduced the number of cross-compliance rules, control procedures remain complex. Furthermore, the costs of implementing cross-compliance are not sufficiently quantified.

• Primary Source

ECA: News, 27.10.16: Cross-compliance: Commission cannot ensure system is effective https://www.eca.europa.eu/en/Pages/NewsItem.aspx?nid=7599

ECA: Special Report No 26/2016: Making cross‑compliance more effective and achieving simplification remains challenging [PDF] http://www.eca.europa.eu/Lists/ECADocuments/SR14_24/SR14_24_EN.pdf

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