Many farmers around Europe are snowed under with all the bureaucracy and red tape surrounding the new CAP, according to Udo Hemmerling of European farmers union Copa-Cogeca.
Copa and Cogeca has welcomed as a step in the right direction European Commissioner Hogans’ plan to extend the deadline for aid applications for CAP direct payments as many farmers are unable to comply in time and the rules still need to be clarified.
The European Commission proposed the extension of the deadline of aid applications for Direct Payments to Monday, June 15.
Chairman of Copa-Cogeca Working Party on “direct payments and greening”, Hemmerling said basic fundamental questions remain unanswered, especially vis a vis the new CAP greening rules.
“We want as many rules as possible to be simplified now instead of waiting until the end of the year.
“We hope that the next step will be to modify the conditions to grant voluntary coupled support in the context of animal identification and registration requirements, as announced by Commissioner Hogan on Monday,” he said.
According to Hemmerling in 2015, Copa-Cogeca will also be working hard to ensure that EU farmers are given time to adapt and payments are not cut unfairly in the first years of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform for small unintentional errors.
“We have sent detailed proposals to Phil Hogan outlining areas where simplification in the new CAP is crucial.”
We really want to see concrete initiatives introduced to simplify administration for all operators as soon as possible and not wait till the end of the year, he added.