Brussels, Belgium
July 1, 2008
At a meeting of the Special
Committee for Agriculture on Monday, the outgoing Presidency of
the EU Council concluded that the vast majority of Member States
will agree to abolish set-aside as proposed by the Commission in
its CAP Health Check proposals. The change comes in response to
the increasingly tight situation on the cereals market. Under
these circumstances, farmers can already benefit from the
measure as from their autumn 2008 and spring 2009 sowings. The
end of the set-aside scheme will allow farmers to adjust their
planting decisions and respond in advance to new market
circumstances.
The abolition of compulsory set-aside from 2009 onwards is a
part of the Commission's CAP Health Check proposal, which was
adopted by the Commission on 20 May 2008 and it is currently
under discussion in the Council, the European Parliament and the
other European Institutions. Under the proposal, farmers will
not be obliged to set aside land from production in order to be
entitled to the amount fixed by the set-aside entitlements. The
set-aside entitlements will be turned into to normal payment
entitlements. The proposal is the logical follow-up of the
Council decision to fix the rate for compulsory set aside at
zero in 2008.
Background
Set-aside was introduced to limit production of cereals in the
EU and applied on a voluntary basis from 1988/89. After the 1992
reform, it became obligatory i.e. producers under the general
scheme were required to set-aside a defined percentage of their
declared areas in order to be eligible to direct payments. With
the 2003 reform, they received set-aside entitlements, which
give the right to a payment if they are accompanied by eligible
land put into set-aside.
The rate of obligatory set-aside was initially decided every
year but in 1999/2000 it was set permanently at 10 % for
simplification purposes. In the new Member States that opted for
the Single Area Payment Scheme (SAPS), farmers are exempted from
the obligation of set-aside (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic,
Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovak
Republic,).
For autumn 2007 and spring 2008 sowings the rate of set-aside
has already been set at 0%.
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