Good agricultural and environmental condition of agricultural land: cross compliance of the new EU policy

the main goal of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is enhancing the competitiveness of the Community agriculture and promoting food quality and environment standards. Therefore it is necessary to complete the shift from production support to producer support by introducing a system of decoupled income support for each farm. The farmer, receiving direct payments (“single payment”), has to respect the statutory management requirements, published in 18 Directives and Regulations in the areas: public, animal and plant health, environment and animal welfare (“cross compliance”). In order to avoid the abandonment of agricultural land and ensure that it is maintained in good agricultural and environmental condition, standards for soil erosion, soil organic matter, soil structure and minimum level of maintenance should be established. It is therefore appropriate to establish a Community framework within which the Member States discuss a common policy, adopting standards taking account of the specific characteristics of the areas concerned, including soil and climatic conditions and existing farming systems (land use, crop rotation, farming practices) and farm structures