The proposed reforms are "all about freeing our farmers to meet growing demand and respond quickly to what the market is telling them," EU Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said in a 20 May press statement announcing the plans.
Dubbed the 'Health Check', the proposals build on an earlier Commission communication published on 20 November 2007 and are part of an ongoing process to modernise and simplify the EU's agricultural regime, which has been heavily criticised for creating harmful distortions in European and global agricultural markets.
A further decoupling of production from payments is introduced as a main feature of the proposals, although suckler cow, goat and sheep premia will continue to benefit from exemptions. In parallel, 8% of current direct aid to farmers should be 'modulated', or shifted, towards the EU's rural development budget by 2012.
"Funding obtained this way could be used by member states to reinforce programmes in the fields of climate change, renewable energy, water management and biodiversity," according to the Commission.
Meanwhile 'cross compliance' obligations, under which farmers who do not adhere to environmental guidelines risk reductions to subsidies, should be simplified, the EU executive said.
Existing intervention mechanisms, whereby public funds are used to buy up any surplus production, should also be eliminated or reduced for a number of products, notably durum wheat, rice and pig meat, according to the proposal.
In addition, existing requirements to keep 10% of arable land out of production - the so-called 'set-aside' - should be abolished. Likewise milk quotas are to be phased out by 2015, following several years of continued quota increases in order to ensure milk producers a 'soft landing'.
The reform plans, to be discussed by the EU's agriculture ministers (who hope to reach a deal before the end of the year), are being put forward in a context of surging global food prices (EurActiv 20/05/08).
