The Agricultural advisor of the Dutch Embassy in Spain, Catharina Zwitser, spoke about the priorities of the presidency of the European Union (EU).
The Netherlands, which is currently holding the presidency of the EU, will work hard to make the CAP simpler and to boost progress, said Zwitser.
She also spoke about the recent proposals of the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Phil Hogan, who announced a system of yellow cards to admonish farmers or ranchers who infringe their aid applications for the first time so as to give them a warning before penalizing them.
The purpose of these cards, says Catharina Zwitser, is to avoid sanctioning producers for inadvertently making errors: "Things were very strict before and making a mistake could mean producers might lose a lot of direct payments. Now they have the opportunity to make corrections, but if the mistakes persist the authorities will have to take action."
Zwitser recognized the CAP had many commitments with many countries, so it had very complex rules, and that they need to be applied in a more flexible manner.
This semester the EU countries will begin to analyze the operation of the CAP aid scheme and its future after 2020. There will also be a discussion at the informal Council meeting of ministers from the EU in May in Amsterdam. The aim is to share national experiences of the new CAP and to analyze how to improve it.
Complications with the ecological requirements
Catharina Zwitser said that one of the most difficult aspects they faced were the environmental conditions that the producers had to meet to receive part of the payments.
"Europe has a huge area, each country has its soil, climate and structure," said the Dutch representative, adding that they expected Hogan to submit proposals in the coming months so as to simplify these requirements. As an example, she states that the farmers in the Netherlands worked collectively to apply these environmental measures on the land that they managed together.
Regarding the agricultural markets, Zwitser said that the beginning of the Russian veto on EU products (in summer 2014) had been a huge shock for several sectors, such as the horticulture or pig sector, but that the EU had proven it was strong and had increased its sales in other markets. She also stressed that Spain had proved there were other countries besides Russia and that it had recovered in other destinations what it had stopped selling in that market.
Source: efeagro.com