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
Date: 1998-07-09
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: aid system, environmental protection, land use, set-aside, wooded area

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between  compliance  with  the  set-aside  obligation  and  the  areas  withdrawn  from 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 

1996 

(hectares) 

1997 

Belgium 

Denmark 

Germany 

Greece 

Spain 

France 

Ireland 

Italy 

Luxembourg 

The  Netherlands 

Austria 

Portugal 

Finland 

Sweden 

Reg.  2078/92 

Reg.  2080/92 

Total 

Reg.  2078/92 

Reg.  2080/92 

Total 

8.89 

... 

191.04 

— 

* 

— 

... 

... 

7.50 

60.78 

... 

* 

... 

... 

8.89 

7.50 

251.82 

0.00 

955.00 

0.00 

0.00 

3.16 

65.80 

123.53 

... 

* 

... 

... 

2.78 

38.10 

145.80 

... 

* 

... 

... 

5.94 

103.90 

269.33 

0.00 

623.00 

0.00 

0.00 

6  500.00 

8  418.00 

14 918.00 

13 667.00 

12  354.00 

26 021.00 

— 

— 

— 
... 

8.00 

— 

... 

... 

... 

... 

30.00 

... 

0.00 

0.00 

0.00 

0.00 

38.00 

0.00 

... 

... 

1.40 

... 

29.00 

... 

... 

34.00 

... 

... 

17.00 

... 

0.00 

34.00 

1.40 

0.00 

46.00 

0.00 

United  Kingdom 

Total 

334.00 

7041.93* 

1  272.42 

1  606.42 

465.00 

2  069.00 

2  534.00 

9788.70* 

17785.63 

14354.89* 

14660.68* 

29638.57 

Total  1996-1997 

4 

7 424.20 

(*) 

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 

Office  for Official  Publications of the European  Communities 

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