COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
Brussels, 09.07.1998 
COM(1998) 425 final 
Commission Report to the Council 
on the application of Article 7(2) of Regulation (EEC) No 1765/92 
Counting the areas set aside under Regulation (EEC) No 2078/92 (agri-environment) and land afforested 
under Regulation (EEC) No 2080/92 for the purposes of the set-aside requirement provided for as part of 
the general compensatory payment scheme for certain arable crops 

Commission Report to the Council 
on the application of Article 7(2) of Regulation (EEC) No 1765/92 
Counting the areas set aside under Regulation (EEC) No 2078/92 (agri-environment) and land afforested 
under Regulation (EEC) No 2080/92 for the purposes of the set-aside requirement provided for as part of 
the general compensatory payment scheme for certain arable crops 
l. INTRODUCTION 
This report satisfies the requirement imposed on the Commission by the basic 
regulation on arable crops to analyse the opportunities offered to producers to fulfil 
their set-aside requirement by counting the areas set aside for agri-environmental 
measures or afforested under the afforestation programme after June 1995. 
2. BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE SCHEME 
In December 1993, the Council asked the Commission to look at the relationship 
between compliance with the set-aside obligation and the areas withdrawn from 
production with a view to afforestation or for environmental purposes. The report, 
notified to the Council in December 19941, concluded that environmental set-aside 
and afforestation carried out under Regulation (EEC) Nos 2078/922 and 2080/923 
should be counted as part of the obligation to set-aside introduced by Council 
Regulation (EEC) No 1765/924. This solution facilitates in practice the long term 
withdrawal of the most marginal arable land by offering producers of arable crops a 
new option for the management of set aside and by making the link between the CAP 
reform of 1992 and the protection of environment more visible. 
Council Regulation (EEC) No 1460/955, amending Regulation (EEC) No 1765/92, 
introduces these conclusions into Community legislation. 
1 Doc. SEC (94) 2062 final, 9.12.1994. Report from the Commission: the relationship between * 
compliance with the non-rotational set-aside obligation, environmental set-aside and the use of set 
aside land for afforestation purposes. 
2 OJ L 215, 30.7.1992, p. 85, as last amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 2772/95 (OJ L 288, 
1.12.1995, p. 35) 
3 OJ L 215,. 30.7.1992, p. 96, as last amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 231/96 (OJ L 30, 
8.2.1996, p. 33) 
4 OJ L 181, 1.7.1992, p. 12, as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1422/97 (OJ L 196, 24.7.1997, 
p. 18). 
5 OJL144, 28.6.1995, p. 1. 
3. LEGISLATIVE PROVISIONS 
Article 7(2) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 1765/92 (as amended by Regulation 
(EEC) No 1460/95) provides that areas set aside under Regulation (EEC) 
No 2078/92 or afforested under Regulation (EEC) No 2080/92 as a result of an 
application made under either of those regulations on or after the date of publication 
of Regulation (EC) No 1460/95 may, up to a limit per holding which may be set by 
the Member State concerned, be counted as being set aside for the purposes of the 
set-aside requirement provided for in Regulation (EEC) No 1765/92 as part of the 
general compensatory scheme for certain arable crops. 
The Member States can decide whether to apply this scheme to a new applicant in 
any region where there is a continuing risk of significantly exceeding the regional 
base area. 
The fifth subparagraph of Article 7(2) of Regulation (EEC) No 1765/92 stipulates 
that the Member States should send a report to the Commission by 31 December 
1997 at the latest on the way in which they have applied the scheme, together with 
the relevant statistics. Based on these reports, the Commission is to review the 
operation of the scheme and publish a report on its implementation and effects on or 
before 30 June 1998 accompanied, if necessary, by a proposal. 
3.1. Commission implementing measures 
The areas committed under this measure are subject to the same rules as 
those for obligatory set aside, except for compensation. 
In the context of this counting exercise, areas falling within the arable crops 
scheme but which were withdrawn from production under the accompanying 
measures do not qualify for the compensatory payment granted for set-aside 
under Regulation (EEC) No 1765/92 although they do qualify for the 
premiums provided for in the environmental or afforestation programme of 
which they are part, to compensate the loss of income. This compensation 
cannot be greater than the compensatory payment provided for the set aside 
of land under Regulation (EEC) No 1765/92. 
4. IMPLEMENTATION BY THE MEMBER STATES 
This scheme was first implemented in the 1996/97 marketing year, i.e. for aid 
applications for the 1996 harvest. In view of the final date fixed in Regulation (EEC) 
No 1765/92 by which the Member States had to send data (31.12.1997) and by 
which the Commission had to report (30.6.1998), this report can thus cover only two 
marketing years of application (1996/97 and 1997/98) 
Nine Member States applied the scheme. In general most of the Member States 
concerned restricted themselves to applying the scheme as laid down in Council 
Regulation (EEC) No 1765/92, without introducing specific detailed rules of 
applicatior. 
As regards couning the areas set aside under Regulation (EEC) No 2078/92, the 
land i" volved was set a£«.','e as part of long term (twenty year) set-aside programmes 
with a view to using farmland for purposes connected with the environment, in 
particular for the establishment of biotope reserves or natural parks or for the 
protection of hydrological systems. Such land must not be used for farming nor be 
used for money-making purposes other than those permitted for the other land set 
aside under Regulation (EEC) No 1765/92. 
In the case of land afforested under Regulation (EEC) No 2080/92, the farmland in 
question was afforested under an afforestation programme funded by the Regulation. 
In the case of the specific measures, Germany, in accordance with the fourth 
subparagraph of Article 7(2) of Regulation (EEC) No 1765/92, decided not to apply 
the scheme in regions in which there is a continuing risk of a significant overshoot of 
the regional base area (Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt). 
5. STATISTICS 
Member State 
Belgium 
Denmark 
Germany 
Greece 
Spain 
France 
Ireland 
Italy 
Luxembourg 
The Netherlands 
Austria 
Portugal 
Finland 
Sweden 
United Kingdom 
Total 
Total 1996-1997 1996 
Reg. 2078/92 
8.89 
... 
191.04 
— 
* 
— 
... 
6 500.00 
— 
— 
— 
... 
8.00 
— 
334.00 
7041.93* 
4 Reg. 2080/92 
... 
7.50 
60.78 
... 
* 
... 
... 
8 418.00 
... 
... 
... 
... 
30.00 
... 
1 272.42 
9788.70* 
7 424.20 Total 
8.89 
7.50 
251.82 
0.00 
955.00 
0.00 
0.00 
14 918.00 
0.00 
0.00 
0.00 
0.00 
38.00 
0.00 
1 606.42 
17785.63 (hectares) 
1997 
Reg. 2078/92 
3.16 
65.80 
123.53 
... 
* 
... 
... 
13 667.00 
... 
... 
1.40 
... 
29.00 
... 
465.00 
14354.89* Reg. 2080/92 
2.78 
38.10 
145.80 
... 
* 
... 
... 
12 354.00 
... 
34.00 
... 
... 
17.00 
... 
2 069.00 
14660.68* Total 
5.94 
103.90 
269.33 
0.00 
623.00 
0.00 
0.00 
26 021.00 
0.00 
34.00 
1.40 
0.00 
46.00 
0.00 
2 534.00 
29638.57 
(*) Only the total is available for Spain 
6. CONCLUSIONS 
As part of the reform envisaged in Agenda 20006, the Commission has proposed, 
with a view to simplification and consistency, reconsidering this counting of certain 
areas for the purposes of satisfying the set-aside requirement laid down in the arable 
crop scheme. 
In the first place, with a basic rate for compulsory set aside fixed in principle at zero, 
such a provision would lose much of its importance and economic interest for the 
producer. 
Secondly, the Commission intends to restore to the set aside scheme its role as a 
factor for achieving cyclical balance in production, by ensuring that it is not confused 
with instruments to encourage lasting renewal and upgrading of the environment. 
Furthermore, the use made of the scheme by the Member States (about 47 000 
hectares for the two marketing years of application) accounted for less than 1% of 
the areas compared to the areas under compulsory set aside in the two reference 
years. 
COM (1998) 158 final, 98/0108 (CNS) 

ISSN 0254-1475 
COM(98) 425 final 
DOCUMENTS 
EN 03 17 14 
Catalogue number : CB-CO-98-436-EN-C 
ISBN 92-78-37932-8 
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