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"It is important that it will be easy to administer and easy to implement on farm".

Flexibility in defining green measures

All the delegates had asked for flexibility and had requested to expand the scope of the greening by definition to include Pillar II environmental schemes. They are proposing to adjust the scope of crop diversification in certain cases from three to two and that the definition of a crop was to be increased from three hectares to ten hectares.

Greening equivalents

The Commission stated that the Greening was a very important part of the CAP and that they had looked at a number of ideas to introduce flexibility. But Greening has to be part of Pillar I and it has to apply throughout Europe for all farms with the only exception being small farms. It will look to recognize a number of existing Agri Environmental Schemes in place, currently financed under Pillar II, as equivalents to the proposed greening options.

It will also look at the definition of permanent pastures so that it might include areas of non-herbaceous species which are grazed. It will also look to extend the period for defining a permanent pasture from five to eight years.

On the need for crop diversification there is now a proposal to have a threshold of ten hectares, farms below this will not be included. They also want to look to exclude farms up to 50 hectares where a large proportion of the land is in pasture.

The Minister stressed that the CAP should contribute to the Green transition of European agriculture as well as contributing to growth and jobs. At the moment the commission proposed 3 greening measures in Pillar I, crop diversification, permanent grassland and eco focus areas but also that farms can be green by definition such as organic farming.

The proposals put forward by the Commissioner to give flexibility on crop diversification and grassland were broadly accepted, but the Minister agreed that there is a need for more work on the eco focus areas. There was also a need to see how existing environmental schemes and certification programmes could be used as “green equivalents” but also to see how those farmers who already adopt conservation programmes of their own accord can be brought into the proposed greening measures.

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