Farmer standards ‘non-negotiable’

THE fundamental principles of cross-compliance — the set of standards farmers have to respect in order to fully receive their single farm payments — are non-negotiable in the CAP Health Check, the EU Farm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has made clear.

“If we unpick those, we can forget about keeping public support for direct payments in the long term,” she said.

However, Ms Fischer Boel, speaking in Strasbourg, said that according to a recent study the real administrative burdens which cross-compliance places on farmers are fairly light.