WRITTEN QUESTION E-2863/00

by Elspeth Attwooll (ELDR) to the Commission

(14 September 2000)

Subject: Common agricultural policy: Field margins

How does the Commission envisage the attainment of its stated objective of sustainable farming whilst strictly enforcing the current rules requiring a maximum two-metre field margin between the field boundary and the cropped area in order to be eligible for Arable Area Payments without financial penalty?

Regulations (EC) 1257/1999(1) and 1259/1999(2) provide various instruments for the promotion of sustainable farming that protects the environment. Can the Commission confirm whether, and in what way, these might be used to prevent the strict implementation of the two-metre rule in cases where that rule would require hedgerows to be removed in order to meet its requirements?

(1) OJ L 160, 26.6.1999, p. 80.

(2) OJ L 160, 26.6.1999, p. 113.

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(3 November 2000)

The Commission is aware that there seems to be a need for clarifying whether, and to what extent, field margins and especially areas planted with hedgerows can be considered as part of agricultural parcels eligible for arable area support needs. The Commission has been confronted with a similar problem involving trees in an agricultural parcel, for which legislative provisions have been made in Article 2(1) of Commission Regulation (EEC) No 3887/92 of 23 December 1992 laying down detailed rules for applying the integrated administration and control system for certain Community aid schemes(1). The Commission is currently looking at the various possibilities for a legislative solution. The Commission is committed to improving and maintaining the rural environment in the context of the common agricultural policy. It considers hedges and field ditches to be of great importance for wildlife and other environmental functions across the whole farming spectrum, especially those which are more intensively managed. The Commission has, however to ensure that only eligible land benefits from the support scheme of arable crops.

The Honourable Member asks how the provisions of Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 of 17 May 1999 on support for rural development from the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) and amending and repealing certain Regulations, and Council Regulation (EC) No 1259/1999 of 17 May 1999 establishing common rules for direct support schemes under the common agricultural policy, might be used to protect field margins.

Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 provides a framework under which Member States draw up, at the appropriate geographic level, rural development plans which are submitted for Commission approval. A range of measures can be implemented under these plans and benefit from Community co-financing within a financial envelope fixed at Member State level. All plans are required to include an agri-environment measure, the aim of which is to support particular production methods designed to protect the environment and to maintain the countryside. The detailed prescription of agri-environment measures is primarily the responsibility of Member States in order to ensure such measures are well-targeted

to the needs of the region concerned, but might include offering support to farmers for establishing, maintaining or restoring traditional field boundaries if this goes beyond usual good farming practice in the area concerned.

Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 1259/1999 states that Member States shall take the environmental measures they consider to be appropriate in view of the situation of the agricultural land used or the production concerned and which reflect the potential environmental effects. These measures may include support in return for agri-environmental commitments (under Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999, as above), general mandatory environmental requirements and also specific environmental requirements constituting a condition for direct payments. This third possibility could include requiring farmers to maintain environmentally beneficial landscape features, such as hedgerows, as a condition to receive direct aid payments.

(1) OJ L 391, 31.12.1992.