CAP deal brokered after months of negotiation
After months of negotiations the EU policy makers in Brussels have finally struck a deal with regards to the core Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post 2014. The agreed regulations set out the EU policy for direct payments, rural development, quotas and the management of the CAP upon which member states must build their specific schemes.
Of particular interest to most according to Stuart Richards at Nock Deighton will be the regulations regarding direct payment. The regulations seem to state that any new Single Farm Payment regime should be based on a two tier system, whereby member states should dedicate up to 70 per cent of their budget to the provision of a basic payment scheme, topped up with an additional 30 per cent for Greening. At present, there are three basic measures foreseen by the EU in terms of greening including the maintenance of permanent grassland levels; crop diversification (2 crops for holdings with an arable area greater than 10Ha and 3 crops where the arable area is greater than 30ha); and for farms with an arable area exceeding 15Ha, the provision of Ecological Focus Areas - 5% of the arable area dedicated to environmental gain (margins, set-a-side, buffer strips etc).
In order to avoid penalising those already delivering environmental gain, a greening equivalency system looks to be on the cards whereby existing environmentally beneficial practices such as organic farming and the inclusion of land in agri-environment schemes will be consider adequate to meet the requirements. However, double funding will not be allowed so member states will need to ensure that agri-environmental payments are amended accordingly.
There will also be a requirement for all member states to offer a Young Farmers Scheme in order to encourage generational renewal. This will see the basic payment paid to new entrant young farmers (those under 40) topped up by an additional 25% in some situations. In addition to this there are a number of optional schemes member states can implement, such as the small farmers scheme whereby applicants can decide to receive an annual fixed payment instead of making the usual entitlement based claim.
With regards to the definition of an active farmer, the EU have decided to draft a negative list of entities such as airports and water companies that will be excluded from receiving direct payments and member states will be able to extend this list if they wish. The intention is to ensure that funding only goes to active farmers. It would seem that entitlements may be allocated based on the 2014 land area unless the increase in the declared eligible area is substantial. In this situation member states will be allowed to limit the entitlement allocation to 145% of the number declared in 2009.