16 Common Agricultural Policy: application
of recent reforms to the new Member States
| (a)
(25036)
14164/03
COM(03) 640
|
Draft Council Regulation adapting Regulation (EC) No. 1782/2003, establishing common rules for direct support schemes under the common agricultural policy and establishing certain support schemes for farmers, Regulation (EC) No. 1786/2003 on the common organisation of the market in dried fodder, and Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 on support for rural development from the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) by reason of the accession of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia to the European Union.
|
| (b)
(25037)
14165/03
COM(03)643
|
Draft Council Decision adapting the Act of Accession of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia and adjustments to the Treaties on which the European Union is founded, following reform of the common agricultural policy.
|
| Legal base | (a) Article 57 of the Act of Accession; QMV
(b) Article 23 of the Act of Accession; unanimity
|
| Documents originated | 27 October 2003
|
| Deposited in Parliament | 15 November 2003
|
| Department | Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
|
| Basis of consideration | EMs of 27 November 2003
|
| Previous Committee Report | None, but see footnote below
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| To be discussed in Council | 12 December 2003
|
| Committee's assessment | Politically important
|
| Committee's decision | Cleared
|
Background
16.1 As a result of the mid-term review of the Common Agricultural
Policy (CAP),[45] the
Agriculture Council agreed on 26 June 2003 a number of major reforms,
and adopted the text of the necessary Regulations on 29 September.
The purpose of these two documents is to make the consequential
amendments needed to two of those Regulations,[46]
to an earlier measure,[47]
and to the Act of Accession, in order to apply the reforms in
question to the ten new Member States.
(A) DRAFT COUNCIL REGULATION
16.2 The principal changes proposed are as follows:
- The main reform agreed was the introduction of a new Single
Payments Scheme (SPS), which, from 1 January 2005, replaces most
of the existing product-specific direct payments with a single
decoupled payment per hectare, based on the subsidies granted
over a historical reference period (2000 to 2002). Member States
have various options about how and when to implement this change,
including whether a farmer's entitlement should be based on an
individual historic basis (the annual average of the subsidies
granted in the reference period), or on a regional average approach
(where all "historic" entitlements in a given region
are added together and divided by the total area attracting subsidy
in the reference period, so as to give an even amount of entitlement
per hectare across the region). However, Accession States do
not have the figures needed to introduce the historic approach,
and, if a future reference period were to be set, patterns of
agriculture would be skewed as farmers try to maximise their entitlements
to subsidy. The current proposals therefore provide for eventual
use of a regional average approach in the new Member States (though
it has been agreed that, in the period immediately following Accession,
this would be implemented on a simplified basis under the so-called
Single Area Payment scheme (SAPS), applicable not regionally,
but across the whole of a new Member State).
- Farmers will receive decoupled subsidy payments
on certain conditions, including compliance with various environmental,
and animal health and welfare directives, and some Accession States
have negotiated transition periods on certain directives. The
current proposals maintain these transition periods, keep existing
cross-compliance rules as minimum levels to be met, and make new
cross-compliance rules optional for Accession States from 2005
until such time as the SAPS is replaced by the regional option
available under the wider SPS.
- Accession States will start with lower levels
of subsidy than those within the Community, and, although their
levels will gradually increase, the CAP reform agreement included
a commitment by the Commission that modulation and financial discipline
would not apply to the new States until the level of subsidy there
equals that in the existing Member States. The level of modulation
is set to increase annually as more money is shifted from direct
subsidies to environmental and rural development measures. As
it is not known when payments in the new Member States will in
practice equal those in the existing Member States, the level
of modulation for the Accession States is not being set in the
current proposals. It will instead be set by Management Committee
procedure.
- The CAP reform agreement included a series of
national or Community ceilings, quotas and maximum guaranteed
quantities, and the current proposals include the adjustments
needed to take the Accession States into account.
(B) AMENDMENTS TO THE ACT OF ACCESSION
16.3 In extending the CAP to the new Member States,
the Act of Accession sought to avoid prejudicing the outcome of
the separate reform negotiations, but it also enables the Community
to adapt those provisions of the Treaty relating to the CAP, if
necessary. This proposal seeks to make the adaptations required
to reflect the recent reforms, whilst keeping the fundamental
character and principles of the accession package agreed at the
Copenhagen Council in December 2002; treating the new Member States
in a similar way to the current member states; and keeping adaptations
to the minimum, with new Member States being integrated smoothly
into the reformed CAP as soon as possible.
16.4 In particular, it would:
- apply to the new direct payments
agreed as part of the CAP reform package[48]
the phasing-in timetable for direct payments agreed in the Act
of Accession for the new Member States;
- introduce technical changes to the simplified
option for direct payments in the new Member States (SAPS), and
make clear those using this option must switch to the Single Payment
Scheme, when their option ends;
- maintain their option to make complementary national
top-up payments;
- to take into account the reforms agreed for milk.
Conclusion
16.5 We have noted these proposals, and, although
they do not seem to us to raise any issues requiring further consideration,
we are, in clearing them, drawing them to the attention of the
House.
45 (23670) 10879/02; see HC 63-vii (2002-03), paragraph
2 (15 January 2003). (24234) -; see HC 63-xi (2002-03), paragraph
1 (5 February 2003) and HC 63-xxiii (2002-03), paragraph 11 (4
June 2003). Official Report (12 February 2003), Cols.
973-1004 Back
46
Council Regulation (EC) No. 1782/2003 (OJ No. L.270, 21.10.03,
p.1) and Council Regulation (EC) No. 1786/2003 (OJ No. L.270,
21.10.03, p.114). Back
47
Council Regulation (EC) No. 1257/1999 (OJ No. L.160, 26.6.99,
p.80). Back
48
Energy crops, nuts, and the increased compensatory payments for
milk producers following the additional price cut in the dairy
sector. Back
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