DG AGRI’s assessment of the administrative burden on farms arising from the CAP Conference on the simplification of the Common Agricultural Policy A simple CAP for Europe-a challenge for all Brussels, 3-4 October 2006 European Commission Directorate General Agriculture and rural development - Agricultural laws and simplification unit Valérie Adam

Background Communication on « Simplification and Better Regulation for the Common Agricultural Policy », 19.10.2005, COM (2005) 509 final Council Conclusions on Simplification and Better Regulation for the Common Agricultural Policy, December 2005 Council of the European Union, 23-24.03.2006, Presidency Conclusions

Objectives Simplification should reduce unnecessary administrative burdens on farmers: To achieve this, we need to identify and to assess the administrative burdens resulting for farmers from CAP-related measures, introduced by the 2003 CAP reform (in particular the single payment scheme)

Methodology Cooperate with a contractor (through a call for tenders) Follows the EU methodology for assessing administrative costs as set out in COM (2005) 518 final Focus on administrative burdens of CAP-related measures introduced by the 2003 CAP reform

Scope of the study Measures to be covered:Single Payment Scheme (including cross compliance) and other direct payments: Council Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 Commission Regulation (EC) No 795/2004 Commission Regulation (EC) No 796/2004 Commission Regulation (EC) No 1973/2004

Geographical scope Our target: covering the diversity of implementation of the Single Payment Scheme Our scope: France (« historical model »- maximum use of re-coupling options) Italy (« historical model »- some re-coupling options) - Ireland (« historical model »-fully decoupled) Denmark (« regional model »-static) Germany (« regional model »-dynamic)

Assessing the administrative burden For each measure…. Desk research Interviews, questionnaires and other tools Panels, experts and other tools in order to… 1. Identify the information obligations imposed on farmers in the 5 countries 2. Identify the regulatory origin and target groups 3. Identify the required actions and their frequency 4. Identify the relevant cost parameters 7. Outlook for post 2006 administrative costs 6. Assessment of the 2006 overall administrative costs 5. Assessment price per action and their total number

Lessons learned Extrapolation of results across EU Methodological approaches used

What next ? Conduct the study and finalise the results Discuss (experts group meetings) Take into account the results and draw conclusions (Action Plan) Compare results of similar measurement exercices in Member States and work done outside the EU