‘Mistaken’ farmers could gain reprieve

A report from the European Commission next week aims to reduce the risk of farmers losing EU money because of their environmental and food safety mistakes.

The EU in 2003 agreed to replace production-based agricultural pay-outs with a set of direct payments for farms, as long as they met environmental, animal welfare and food safety standards.

But a review of this ‘cross-compliance’ system next Wednesday (28 March) will report that farmers have struggled to understand the rules. "We need to make the system easier to understand," said a Commission agriculture spokesman, "without undermining the basic philosophy of sustainable rules that enjoy wide public support."

According to the paper, minor breaches of cross-compliance rules should not always lead to a reduction in payments. Farmers receiving less than €5,000 per year from the EU agricultural funds could be exempt from the minimum 1% reduction penalty, currently charged for minor infractions of the rules.

The review also opens the possibility of scrapping a rule that obliges farmers to have managed their land for at least ten months before becoming eligible for cross-compliance money. "The so-called ten-month rule…proved difficult to manage by member states and its need appears questionable in the light of experience," according to a draft copy of the report.

A proposal to amend the ten-month rule will follow the review. Most of the Commission ideas are in line with changes requested by Copa-Cogeca, the European farmers’ organisation. The German EU presidency will lead talks on the Commission ideas at the 16-17 April Agriculture Council.

A report from the European Commission next week aims to reduce the risk of farmers losing EU money because of their environmental and food safety mistakes.