(1)

Experience has shown the need to provide for a measure of tolerance for minor cases of non-compliance with the cross compliance requirements where the severity, extent and permanence of such non-compliance would not justify an immediate reduction of the direct payments to be granted. Such a measure of tolerance should nonetheless include an appropriate follow-up by the competent national authority until the non-compliance has been remedied. Moreover, applying reductions to very low initial amounts of direct payments may prove burdensome in comparison to any deterrent effect to be gained. As a consequence, a suitable threshold should be defined, below which Member States may decide not to apply any reduction, provided that the actions to ensure that the farmer remedies the findings of non-compliance concerned are taken by the competent national authority.

(2)

Article 44(3) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 (2) provides that farmers must keep the parcels corresponding to the eligible hectare at their disposal for a period of at least 10 months. Experience has shown that this condition risks constraining the functioning of the land market and creates significant administrative work for the farmers and administrative services involved. Nonetheless, in order to ensure that double claims are not made for the same land, a date should be fixed on which the parcels should be at the farmer’s disposal. It would be appropriate for Member States to determine that date which should be no later than the date fixed for amendment of the aid application. The same rule should also be applied for the Member States applying the single area payment scheme.

(3)

As a consequence of the reduction of the period during which the farmer shall keep at his disposal the parcels corresponding to the eligible hectare to a single day for both the single payment scheme and the single area payment scheme, the rules on liability under cross compliance, in particular in the case of transfer of land during the calendar year concerned, should be clarified. It should therefore be made clear that the farmer who submits an aid application should be held liable towards the competent authority with regard to any failure to fulfil the cross compliance requirements in the calendar year concerned for all agricultural land declared in the aid application. This should not preclude private law arrangements between the farmer concerned and the person to whom or from whom the agricultural land was transferred.

(4)

Article 71h of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 provides that, in the framework of the single payment scheme, the new Member States within the meaning of Article 2(g) of that Regulation may fix different per unit values of entitlements to be allocated for hectares of grassland or permanent pasture and for any other eligible hectares as identified on 30 June 2003 or on 30 June 2005 in the case of Bulgaria and Romania. The new Member States have established an identification system for agricultural parcels in compliance with Article 20 of that Regulation. However, due to technical difficulties when switching over to that identification system, the features of certain parcels as existing in 2003 may not have been accurately reflected. In order to allow for the smooth implementation of the possibility to fix different per unit values, the date for identifying the parcels should be adjusted to 30 June 2006. However for Bulgaria and Romania the date for identifying the parcels should be 1 January 2008. Article 71h of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 should be amended accordingly.

(5)

Experience has also shown that the setting-up of the administrative infrastructure needed for the management of the statutory management requirements covered by the cross compliance rules implies considerable administrative work. A three-year phasing-in of the statutory management requirements in the new Member States using the single area payment scheme, similar to the phasing-in period applied in the Community as constituted on 30 April 2004 in accordance with the time schedule set out in Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003, would ease the process of introduction of the statutory management requirements and their smooth implementation. This phasing-in period should be possible even if the new Member State decides to fully apply the direct payments before the last possible date for applying the single area payment scheme. Article 143b(6) of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 and Article 51(3) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 (3) should be amended accordingly.

(6)

Article 143b(10) and (11) of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 lay down the rules governing the passage of new Member States using the single area payment scheme to the application of the single payment system. According to these rules the decision of a new Member State to implement the single payment scheme is subject to the prior authorisation of the Commission on the basis of an assessment of the state of preparedness of the new Member State concerned. This prior authorisation is no longer necessary since almost all direct payments are decoupled and since both the single area payment scheme and the single payment scheme are decoupled and are area-based payments sharing most of the elements of the integrated system, in particular the land parcel identification system. Those provisions should therefore be deleted. Deletion of paragraphs 10 and 11 of Article 143b implies a consequential amendment to Article 143b(9). That provision should therefore also be amended.

(7)

Table 2 of Annex XII to Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 sets out the total amounts of complementary national direct payments to be paid in Cyprus where the single area payment scheme applies up to 2008. Further to the extension of the application of the single area payment scheme by Council Regulation (EC) No 2012/2006 (4), it is necessary to set out the total amounts to be paid in Cyprus where the single area payment scheme applies for 2009 and 2010.

(8)

The new Member States having decided to apply the single payment scheme have opted to introduce it from 2007. It is therefore appropriate for the amendment to Article 71h of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 to apply to those new Member States from that date.

(9)

A number of the provisions amended by this Regulation, in particular the measure of tolerance for minor cases of non-compliance, the application of reductions below a certain threshold, the fixation of the date at which the farmer shall have the land at his disposal for eligibility under the single payment scheme and the single area payment scheme, as well as the phasing-in period granted to new Member States applying the single area payment scheme in order to fully implement the requirements linked to cross compliance within their territory, would result in rules more favourable for the farmers concerned than the rules currently in force. The retroactive application of such provisions should not infringe the principle of legal certainty of the economic operators concerned. The same applies to the amended provision of Article 71h of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003. However, the provisions concerning the liability of farmers for non-compliance in case of transfer of land should apply from 1 April 2008 in order to provide sufficient legal certainty for the farmers concerned while ensuring an effective application of these provisions in the year 2008.

(10)

Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 and Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 should therefore be amended accordingly,

1.

Article 6 is amended as follows:

2.

in Article 7, paragraph 2, the following subparagraphs shall be added:

‘In duly justified cases Member States may decide that no reduction shall be applied where, given its severity, extent and permanence, a case of non-compliance is to be considered as minor. Cases of non-compliance which constitute a direct risk to public or animal health shall however not be considered as minor.

Unless the farmer has taken immediate remedial action putting an end to the non-compliance found, the competent authority shall take the actions required that may, where appropriate, be limited to an administrative check, to ensure that the farmer remedies the findings of non-compliance concerned. The finding of minor non-compliance and the remedial action to be taken shall be notified to the farmer.’;

3.

in Article 44, paragraph 3, the second sentence shall be replaced by the following:

‘Except in case of force majeure or exceptional circumstances, these parcels shall be at the farmer’s disposal on the date fixed by the Member State which shall be no later than the date fixed in that Member State for amendment of the aid application.’;

4.

Article 71h shall be replaced by the following:

5.

Article 143b shall be amended as follows:

6.

Annex XII shall be amended in accordance with the Annex to this Regulation.

(a)

Article 1(1)(a) shall apply as of 1 April 2008;

(b)

Article 1(4) shall apply as from 1 January 2007.