The European Union (EU) is preparing a series of measures to simplify agriculture rules, which will also include the Farm subsidies program. This was pointed out on Monday by the Reuters news agency, referring to the upcoming legislation on reducing administrative burden for the agrosector, the TASR newsletter informs.
New measures could affect large amounts of money from the EU budget, Because the common agricultural policy is approximately a third of the Union budget for the period of 2021-2027 or payments worth approximately EUR 387 billion for farmers and rural development.
According to the work document of the European Commission (EC) on the calendar of future EU policies available to Reuters, the EU executive is going to propose a “package of simplification” of the common agricultural policy by the end of this year.
“Simplification measures, focused on the common agricultural policy, will solve problems related to the complexity and excessive administrative burden for national reports and farmers,” It cites Reuters from EC work documents, the publication of which is scheduled for Tuesday (11 2.).
Farmers across European countries have used several months of protests last year to put pressure on the EC and force a reduction in excessive bureaucracy. In response to the demands of the European Commission, it released some conditions in the greening of agricultural subsidies, but this required criticism by environmental activists. Activists emphasized the fact that the EC did not conduct an environmental impact study by promoting changes to the agrosector rules.
Plans for simplifying the common agricultural policy are part of the EU strategy to increase the competitiveness of local industries as well as a response to the US President Donald Trump’s promise to release domestic regulations for American companies. The reduction of the regulations that companies must comply with was one of the Trump’s election promises and, from the first days after taking up the Office, mitigated the provisions on oil and gas mining.
