Progress in talks over cross compliance regulations

FOR the past three months - since the official change over to the EU Single Payment - farmers entitled to payments in 2005 have “technically” been subject to cross compliance regulations, the final details of which had not yet been agreed by the farming organisations with the Department of Agriculture.

But some progress was reported last week on talks between senior Department officials and farming leaders on implementation of the 18 pieces of legislation, which involve up to 180 standards, under the heading of Cross Compliance.

The issues at dispute are the extent of regulation, the scale of penalties and the level of tolerance, and the goodwill on both sides to compromise between EU regulations and what is practical on farms.