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What does the EC propose to reduce the administrative burden?

The European Commission sent a paper to the Belgian Presidency outlining first possible actions to help reduce the administrative burden.

The document, which will be discussed with Member States in the agricultural Council of 26 February, lists a range of short- and mid-term actions that can be taken to achieve simplification. This will serve as the basis for discussions and joint action with EU countries.

Taking into account that any successful simplification exercise must be carried out in close cooperation with the national administrations and farmers themselves, the Commission will launch in March an online survey directly addressed to farmers. This targeted consultation will help to identify their main sources of concern, and understand the sources of administrative burden and complexity.

Table 1. Example of short-term measures submitted for discussion to Member States.

Measure	Impact	Timeline
Changing rules of the calculation of permanent grassland to cater for cases of structural changes in farming	Farmers with reduced livestock will not have to reconvert arable areas to pasture	Delegated act to be adopted in March
Reviewing possible agricultural practices to cover soils	Farmers can have more flexibility in how they fulfil this conditionality	Clarification to be presented and discussed with Member States in March
Revising the EU methodology to assess the quality of the Area Monitoring System	Farmers will receive up to 50% fewer on-farm visits; this will also free up resources in national administrations	Finalisation and presentation of the new methodology in March
Clarifying the concept of force majeure	Impacted farmers will have more certainty regarding the receipt of their CAP payments and national administrations will benefit from a clearer interpretation at EU level, preventing budgetary errors	Presentation of the clarification to Member States in March
Facilitating exchanges of best practices and amendments to CAP Strategic Plans	National administrations can identify with more ease areas of possible simplification and implement them faster to the benefit of farmers	Ongoing process