The common agricultural policy (CAP) rules can be simplified. The Omnibus simplification package adopted by the European Parliament in December aims to reduce administrative burdens and control force on agricultural holdings. The European Commission points out that fresh solutions can save farmers time and costs. Critics point out, however, that procedural changes do not solve the key problems of European agriculture, says Newseria Business.
Omnibus and winding roads ‘From field to table’
There are many simplifications in Omnibus. First of all, it is 1 control per year, the deficiency of punishment and control of farmers with farms up to 30 hectares, and besides quite a few flexibility and simplification in terms of the full administration, which has grown in relation to agricultural activity by Polish and European farmers – he emphasizes in a conversation with Newseria Krzysztof Hetman, associate of the European Parliament of the Polish People's Party.
According to the Euro MP, the Omnibus package responds to the long-term demands of farmers to reduce bureaucracy. In his opinion, an excessive number of administrative procedures and responsibilities drew farmers distant from primary production activities, and simplifications could actually improve the regular operation of farms.
Further part of the text is under interview with Dr. Jacek Janiszewski
Paperwork, support for smaller farms and environmental conditions
The Omnibus package for farmers includes, among another things, simplification of reporting obligations, greater flexibility in implementing environmental conditionality and wider application of administrative and satellite controls alternatively of field visits. Support for smaller farms is besides to be simplified.
Small farms are to receive financial support up to EUR 3 000 per year and a single improvement payment of up to EUR 75 000. The European Commission besides announces an increase in the yearly flat-rate payment for tiny farmers to improve their financial stableness and reduce administrative costs.
One check a year alternatively of multiple visits
The package provides for the introduction of the rule of 1 coordinated audit per year. The European Commission underlines that this does not mean abolishing supervision, but better planning and reducing duplication of controls under different rules. To date, farmers could be subject to respective parallel controls in 1 year, including direct payments, eco-schemats or animal welfare.
– It is simply a diametric difference to have 12 checks per year and to deal with control persons, to present them with papers each month, and to do so only erstwhile a year. Of course, I've redrawed the situation, but the point is that the farmer should be in the field, able to work and grow land, not sitting at the desk, preparing papers for institutions that have just arrived for inspection – he estimates Krzysztof Hetman.
In the opinion of the Euro MP, the excessive number of controls was a symbol of the detachment of the strategy from the reality of agrarian work. In his view, simplification should reconstruct the right balance between administrative supervision and actual agricultural activity.
Omnibus Criticism: Procedural changes are not enough
Despite the improvement of satellite monitoring systems and administrative analyses, the bureaucratic force in agriculture did not decrease. Decisions to grant or retreat payments were increasingly based on documents, which, as the Commission points out, increased the sense of uncertainty among farmers.
– These are formal, procedural changes, issues of forms, applications, size and number of checks. These are things from the point of view of the full cosmetic system. We did not reverse the river, but we reduced the growth of the administration a bit – he argues Waldemar Buda, associate of the European Parliament of Law and Justice.
In the opinion of the MEPs, simplification does not affect the substance of the problem. In his opinion high environmental and production standards are key, which increases operating costs and makes any farmers not eligible for support, regardless of the number of checks.
Agricultural savings and real challenges
Omnibus is part of a wider simplification programme for European Union law. The European Commission estimates that fresh solutions can save farmers up to €1.6 billion per year, and national administrations around €210 million.
However, Polish MEPs emphasise that administrative simplification does not solve structural problems in agriculture.
– The voice of farmers has been heard to any extent, but I have no uncertainty that force must be placed on the European Commission, including on our part, as we do, and on the part of farmers, so that these simplifications go on," he points out. Krzysztof Hetman.
According to the Euro MP, the current changes are only a first step and request to be further deepened in order to have a real impact on the competitiveness of European agriculture.
The next part of the text is under the movie material Newseria TV
Farmers' protests and the future of CAP funding
Agricultural organisations present a akin position. COPA COGECA Organisation assesses that Omnibus is in the right direction, but has limited scope and does not supply adequate regulatory certainty or investment impetus. The organisation besides points to the deficiency of more ambitious solutions in the field of environmental law.
– The place of farmers is not on the street, it is in the field and the farm, which they emphasize each time. specified a protest is already the usage of atomic weapons by farmers, due to the fact that they would besides like to manage, sow, harvest, plow, not be on the street and fight for their own – he explains Krzysztof Hetman.
In the opinion of the MEP, the protests are an expression of increasing frustration and concern about the future of financing the common agricultural policy after 2028.
CAP budget after 2028
The European Commission's proposals for a fresh structure of the EU budget in which agricultural resources are to be included in a single national financial basket are controversial. According to critics, this means that there is no warrant of maintaining the level of support for agriculture.
– The proposal is EUR 80 billion smaller. This does not even equalise inflation, or even reduce the budget by 20%. erstwhile we add that these measures are to be in 1 basket, that is, agriculture in all country will gotta fight for them, due to the fact that this is the maximum amount that might just as well go on roads or science, we see that farmers do not have a warrant that this money will go on agriculture – predicts Waldemar Buda.
In the opinion of the Euro-PiS associate without clear decisions on the financing of the CAP, administrative simplification will not translate into a real improvement in the situation of farms. COPA COGECA warns that cutting the CAP budget by 20% could endanger the food safety of 450 million Europeans.
SOURCE: Newseria Bzines
