Regulation 2009/73 - Common rules for direct support schemes for farmers under the common agricultural policy and establishing certain support schemes for farmers - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 30/16

The reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) agreed in 2003 and 2004 included provisions to gauge their effectiveness. In this context the Commission presented a Communication to the European Parliament and the Council entitled ‘Preparing for the’ Health Check ‘of the CAP reform’ on 20 November 2007. That Communication and the subsequent discussions of its main elements by the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, as well as numerous contributions arising from public consultation should be taken into account.

Experience drawn from the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 of 29 September 2003 establishing common rules for direct support schemes under the common agricultural policy and establishing certain support schemes (4) in particular shows that certain elements of the support mechanism need to be adjusted. In particular, the decoupling of direct support should be extended and the functioning of the single payment scheme should be simplified. Furthermore, Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 has been substantially amended on several occasions. In the light of these developments and in the interest of clarity, it should be repealed and replaced by this Regulation.

Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 established the principle that farmers who do not comply with certain requirements in the areas of public, animal and plant health, environment and animal welfare are subject to reductions of or exclusion from direct support. This ‘cross compliance’ system forms an integral part of Community support under direct payments and should therefore be maintained. However, experience has shown that a number of the requirements within the scope of cross compliance are not sufficiently relevant to farming activity or farm land or concern national authorities rather than farmers. It is therefore appropriate to adjust the scope of cross compliance.

Furthermore, in order to avoid agricultural land being abandoned and to ensure that it is maintained in good agricultural and environmental condition, Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 established a Community framework within which Member States adopt standards taking account of the specific characteristics of the areas concerned, including soil and climatic conditions and existing farming systems, land use, crop rotation, farming practices and farm structures. This framework should be maintained. Experience has shown nevertheless that the relevance and beneficial effects of certain standards are not sufficient to justify their implementation by all Member States. Such standards should therefore become optional for Member States. However, to ensure that the framework is as consistent as possible, a standard should not be optional where before 2009 the Member State concerned already defined a minimum requirement on the basis of such a standard or where national rules which...