Nordic and Baltic states call for root-and-branch reform of CAP
A GROUP of countries has tabled a 67-item list of how to fix the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy.
Six Nordic and Baltic states — Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden — made the submission to EU farm ministers on Monday in an effort to pare down the policy post-Brexit.
They say the existing policy “comes close to micromanagement” at times and contains “layers of rules” that make it costly and burdensome for farmers.
“The result is a highly complex administrative set-up that creates costs and burdens that cannot be motivated by the outcome,” the six countries say in a joint paper to farm ministers.
One of the suggestions they make is to allow agricultural subsidies to be paid even while on-farm inspections are ongoing, to prevent payment delays due to lengthy checks.
This is especially true, they say, for checks on environmental practices such as crop rotation or ecological focus areas (EFAs).
The current rules require all administrative and physical checks to be completed before any direct payments can be made to a farmer.
They also say that there are more detailed requirements for animals than crops, putting an unfair burden on livestock farmers, particularly when it comes to penalties for not meeting requirements.
“We would like to continue simplification,” said Finnish agriculture minister Kimmo (EFA) to benefit wildlife and Tiilikainen of the paper, which plant life. he said he was “proud” to presAlong with crop rotation ent to ministers. and maintaining permanent
“It is our obligation as Eugrassland, setting aside land ropean ministers to provide as EFA is also a way of earning a simpler and more effective “greening” subsidies from the Common Agricultural PolicyEU. to our farmers, and thisA is our Commission report found last chance to achieve it since that in 2015, almost eight milBrexit negotiations will make it lion hectares of land was demore complicated,” said Cypriot clared as EFA, or 13pc, twice as farm minister Nicos Kouyialis. much as required by law.
Meanwhile, the European Agriculture commissioner Commission has said it will not Phil Hogan said the practice be raising the threshold of what provides “benefits for biodiland farmers should set aside versity and ecosystem services”. for environmental purposes. But nature campaigners, the European Environmental Bureau, say greening payments have a negligible effect on the environment, particularly as farmers continue to use pesticides on EFA land.
Greening subsidies
Current rules say farmers with arable land exceeding 15 hectares must ring fence 5pc of it as an “ecological focus area”