The Council of the EU has adopted the review of the EU’s common agricultural policy

By: STA Date: 2024. 05. 13. 10:00

The Council of the European Union has definitively accepted the review of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which aims to reduce the administrative burden on EU farmers and ensure greater flexibility in meeting certain environmental protection conditions, the EU Council wrote in a statement on Monday.

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According to the Brussels statement of the body, which includes representatives of the governments of the EU member states, the approved CAP review creates a balance between maintaining the environmental protection and climate policy aspirations of the current EU greyhound price policy and addressing the concerns of agricultural producers. For the GAEC requirements, the revision allows Member States to allow temporary and targeted derogations from certain cross-compliance requirements in the event of unforeseen climatic conditions that prevent farmers from meeting them.

EU farmers will not be obliged to leave a certain part of their arable land fallow

On a voluntary basis, they can decide to leave part of their arable land fallow or to plant new crops on it. At the same time, it encourages farmers to maintain non-productive areas that are beneficial for biodiversity. In addition, the crop rotation also enables the diversification of crop production for farmers who own areas affected by regular drought or excessive rainfall, so that they can more easily meet the relevant requirement, they wrote.

Member States may exempt certain crops, soil types or farming systems from compliance with tillage requirements

Their scope must be limited and they can only be created if they prove to be necessary to solve specific problems. The revision exempts agricultural farms operating on an area of less than 10 hectares from inspections and sanctions related to compliance with conditionality requirements, which reduces the administrative burden related to inspections for small producers, who make up 65 percent of the CAP beneficiaries, they said. The review ensures that the EU countries can now amend their CAP strategic plans on a permanent basis, twice a year, as opposed to the current possibility of a single amendment. This – they wrote – gives member states more flexibility to deal with changing conditions. The decree will enter into force immediately after its announcement, they informed. Agricultural producers can apply certain new rules related to environmental protection retroactively to the application year of 2024, they added.

MTI