Welcome to IEEP's Site for the Cross Compliance and the CAP Project 2002-2005

With pressure to integrate environmental concerns into agriculture, 'cross-compliance' is a policy tool increasingly being used to improve the environmental impacts of farm management. Cross-compliance in the context of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) sets environmental and other standards that farmers must adhere to in order to receive subsidies. The 2003 Mid Term Review (MTR) of the CAP made cross-compliance a compulsory measure, applying to all direct payments. Member States must now set farming standards in relation to 19 European Union (EU) regulations and directives (Statutory Management Requirements or SMRs), define Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAECs) and ensure compliance with those standards on farms in receipt of CAP subsidies. Cross-compliance is a policy tool that was developed to help integrate environmental concerns into agriculture, and in particular to combat the detrimental impacts of agricultural intensification. It requires farmers in receipt of agricultural subsidies to comply with certain environmental standards or face the reduction or complete withdrawal of such subsidies.

The project brought together ten organisations from across the EU to explore the background of cross-compliance in the CAP, lessons learned from its implementation to date and opportunities for improving its use as an agri-environment instrument in the future. A series of six pan-European stakeholder meetings were held during project and four issues of a newsletter were produced.

Outputs include national reports on Good Farming Practice under the Rural Development and SAPARD Regulation and on Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC) for the Single Farm Payment and Single Area Payment Scheme. The project conclusions are available in Czech, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish and Lithuanian.

For further information on the project please contact Hannah Lee.