EESC Hearing The Northern dimension of Less-Favoured Areas Tallin - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

EESC Hearing The Northern dimension of Less-Favoured Areas Tallin 26 May 2009 ��������������� ��������������������� ������������������������������������

NHP position within the CAP Single Payment NHP Agro-Environment • Sustains farmers’ •Compensates for the Covers additional income natural disadvantage costs/income foregone for • In general lower in LFAs specific environmental •Specific threat of land • GAEC: more onerous in commitments abandonment areas with NH •Environmental benefit from continuing farming •No specific environmental outcome 2

LISBON TREATY (not in force yet) TITLE XVIII ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND TERRITORIAL COHESION Article 174 In order to promote its overall harmonious development […] particular attention shall be paid to […] regions which suffer from severe and permanent natural or demographic handicaps such as the northernmost regions with very low population density and island, cross-border and mountain regions. 3

Finland: 95% Sweden:49% Estonia:41% Scotland:85% Latvia:74% 4

Average payment per hectare in 2005 (Total LFA) 250 250 Average payment per hectare (€) 215 196 200 EU average 178 151 150 139 136 135 125 118 110 94 88 81 79 78 100 74 65 64 56 54 50 46 41 50 25 16 0 MT FI AT SI IT BE CY PT LU HU FR NL IE GR DE SK DK LV UK LT PL SE EE ES CZ 5

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Time and budget framework � New area delimitation in place in 2014 (before not realistic) � No budgetary impact (RD fixed envelopes) � Future policy developments not precluded 7

8 Common Biophysical Criteria General considerations: • Provide a clear and robust common framework, based on sound scientific knowledge • Transparent and comparable application is possible, provided that definitions and thresholds are identical at EU level • Cover different situations in Europe (North,South, Atlantic, Mediterrenean, etc…) • High simplification potential: 1 single criterion triggers delimitation (against more than 100 criteria nowadays) • Already extensively discussed with MS (confirmed that criteria are relevant) 8

Timetable • Council Working Party 8-15 & 28 May 2009 • SCA 8 & 15 June 2009 • 23/24 June 2009: Council conclusions • By 21 October 2009 (21 January 2010 tbc): send maps to DG AGRI (see MFB letters to Ministers on 21 April) • 2010 Commission proposal (if agreed by new Commission) • 2014: new system in place 9

COM 2009(161) of 21 April 2009 and related documents A) http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rurdev/lfa/comm/index_en.htm: – Communication (all languages) – Technical annex (EN) – Impact Assessment Report (EN) – Impact Assessment Summary (all languages) – Press release – Citizens' summary – Newsletter B)http://agrienv.jrc.ec.europa.eu/activities/lfa.htm: - JRC Guidelines for Member States (EN) C)http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rurdev/lfa/index_en.htm - the general LFA web-page on Europa. D) MFB’s Letters to Ministers 10