Time may be running out for the 20 year tree premia payments
The court, which is responsible for the sound financial management of the EU budget, has declared that afforestation contracts running for up to 20 years have taken up considerable amounts of funds which had been planned to be used for new afforestation measures.
The Court repeated an earlier suggestion from the Economic and Social Committee (which represents European interest groups) that a considerably bigger area of Europe could be afforested at lower cost by planting agricultural land owned by public authorities. Only the cost of establishment would be granted, whereas up to 20 years of income compensation or maintenance costs are paid when private land is afforested.
The Commission has replied to the court's recommendations, saying they will be considered in the forthcoming review of the EU Forest Strategy and the rural development framework.
"The longer-term compensation for income foregone is a core element to make afforestation of productive agricultural land attractive for farmers. The only alternatives would be a capitalised one-off aid or an eventually higher payment over a shorter period, with all resulting problems for the control of the commitment over a longer period", said the Commission in its response.
However, it proposed to mitigate the problem by granting income loss compensation for only up to ten years, and by reducing the ceiling for compensation for loss of income.
This is one of the Commission's Rural Development proposals for the post 2006 period.
The Commission added that in this proposal, account should be taken on the significant effect in certain specific regions, on top of the overall impact.
"The proposals for the post 2006 Rural Development framework do not exclude the possibility for Member States to focus on afforestation of agricultural land owned by public authorities", noted the Commission.
The Court of Auditors called on the Commission to reconsider how afforestation may be better targeted, and at a lower cost to the EU budget, taking into account changing public needs and the new emphasis of Community legislation on environmental benefits.
