Last week the European Commission published a report outlining the progress already made in simplifying the Common Agricultural Policy and re-stated its confidence in meeting its objective of reducing the administrative burden arising from the CAP by 25% by 2012. The report highlights a “number of measures taken over the past three and a half years which reduce red tape for farmers, companies involved in the food business and administrations, and promise to reduce annual costs by hundreds of millions of euros , which will render European farming more competitive.”
Since 2005, the Commission has pushed ahead with its CAP Simplification Action Plan, repealed hundreds of obsolete acts, introduced reforms which streamline the CAP, and improved law-making practices and IT systems. A key change was the recent Health Check agreement, which will render the CAP much less complex. Other measures on the Commission’s agenda include the possibility of streamlining cross-compliance rules, a more regular review of legislation and possible changes to EU quality policy, including marketing standards and the system of geographical indications.
“We’ve been making great progress with our efforts to make the CAP simpler and more user-friendly,” said Mariann Fischer Boel, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development. “Simplifying the policy means less hassle for administrators, but more importantly, it means that farmers can spend more time in the field doing what they do best and less time doing paperwork. The changes we have made will also reduce the burden to farmers by hundreds of millions of euros. At a time of economic difficulties, this is a real bonus.”
The Commission has been focusing on simplifying the CAP since it published its first Communication on the issue in October 2005. The programme is fully embedded in the overall Commission strategy on Better Regulation.
You can download the report here.