Study to assess the administrative burden on farms arising from the CAP

In cooperation with Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) experts and national specialists on farmers’ compliance with CAP-related regulation, Ramboll Management has conducted a study on behalf of DG Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) to assess the administrative costs on farms arising from the CAP.

The objective of the study has been to measure the administrative costs for farmers resulting from CAP-related measures introduced by the 2003 CAP reform, in particular the single payment scheme. The aim of the study is therefore not to consider the benefits of the regulation, nor is costs incurred in the public sector or in households discussed.

The study provides two main outputs:
- an assessment of the administrative costs for selected CAP-related measures, especially the Single Payment Scheme (SPS), in each of the 5 selected Member States in 2006, and
- an outlook on further expected developments of farmers’ administrative costs arising from the Single Payment Scheme

The methodological approach and design of the study has been based on the elements of the EU Net Administrative Cost Model as set out in COM (2005) 518 final.

The strength of this methodology is its ability to point out the most costly areas of the regulation and thereby costs reduction potentials. The method specifically does not aim at producing statistically valid results, and therefore estimates of administrative costs obtained throughout this study are indicative.

Drawing on the experience of similar studies conducted by Rambøll Management’s, the methodological approach and design has been further developed to take the necessity to conduct parallel activities into account. Compared to the elements of the EU Net Administrative Cost Model, the chosen design thus rearranges some of the steps in the measurement process, as the output of some steps provide input to others. The chosen approach has thus been designed to account both for the parallel activities as well as for the order of the activities.