As added, "the proposal, in the form of an implementing act, provides national administrations with greater flexibility in implementing CAP tools, in line with all the actions taken by the Commission since the beginning of the year."
Farmers and Member States reported a number of difficulties in the first year of implementation of the current common agricultural policy.
– Since the beginning of the year, the Commission has been making every effort to amend and clarify several provisions of this policy in order to reduce the administrative burden for farmers and national administrations – we read in a statement from the EC's Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development.
One of their concerns concerned the requirements to use geotagged photos from January 1, 2027 for the purposes of the Area Monitoring System. The Commission's draft proposal was publicly consulted from June 11 to July 9, before being presented to member states for their opinion at a committee meeting on July 11.
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Instead of geotagged photos, will committees assess compliance with CAP requirements?
The Area Monitoring System is based on automated analysis of satellite images from the Copernicus program, which aims to reduce the control of farms, help farmers avoid errors and penalties, and facilitate reporting. It forms part of the management and control system to be set up by all Member States to check CAP payment claims and compliance with eligibility requirements for different interventions.
More flexibility and less complexity
The current CAP introduces geotagged photos to avoid field visits to farmers and reduce costs for national administrations. However, it was considered cumbersome and complex to implement by some farmers and Member States.
As previous preliminary research on simplification has shown, half of respondents applying for CAP support do not use mobile devices to provide geotagged photos to authorities. Of the 50% who use mobile devices for this purpose, about half have problems with it because they feel it is too time-consuming, not easy to use or lacks feedback on the accuracy of the image provided.
The Commission has noted these concerns and is proposing to abolish the obligation for Member States to use geotagged images in the site monitoring system. In the Commission's proposal, Member States will have the possibility to ask farmers to use geotagged photos or any other data deemed equivalent.
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Manure can now be transported to the field. Do you need to take photos again this year?
Fulfillment of EC obligations
This is the latest action taken by the European Commission following its commitments to tackle farmers' problems. On 22 February, the Commission presented its first simplification actions to permanently reduce the administrative burden on EU farmers. On 15 March, it presented a proposal for a targeted review of the common agricultural policy, which entered into force on 25 May after successful approval by the Council and the European Parliament.
– Member States play a key role in keeping the administrative burden on farmers limited and proportionate. Any successful simplification must be carried out in close cooperation with national administrations and farmers themselves, noted the DG AGRI press release.
