00:00From environmental exemptions to cutting red tape, the European Commission has presented its simplification plan for the agricultural sector.
00:12Shortly after the plan was announced, European Commissioner for Agriculture Christoph Hansen gave details of the project during a meeting organized by Euronews.
00:21He said the plan is intended to benefit all players, from farmers to member states.
00:26What is felt as administrative burden on the farm is not only CAP, there's as well environmental legislation, health and sanitary legislation, often as well national or regional legislation.
00:39So I think everybody needs to contribute to cut down this bureaucracy.
00:44The simplification plan should save farmers 1.5 billion euros a year and national authorities 210 million euros.
00:53The package of measures is aimed in particular at small farms and organic production.
00:59It involves providing exemptions from environmental rules, also known as cross-compliance, or financial aid for practices that benefit the environment or the competitiveness of farms.
01:11The Commissioner is also keen to develop the digitalization of the sector.
01:16So I have, as a farm, my digital wallet, and if the water administration needs to know something from my land, they can take it out of that.
01:27If the environmental agency needs to know something, they can take it.
01:30I think it is very important that we reduce as well the stress for our farmers, because currently it depends on the member state.
01:38They are facing five, six, seven controls in a year, and that is causing a huge stress to our farmers, and therefore we want as well to reduce these controls.
01:50And there, the member states are as well to deliver.
01:53We want to reduce this to one control per year.
01:57Environmental NGOs believe that this simplification threatens the environmental objectives of the agricultural sector.
02:04However, Hansen says he is responding to the concerns of farmers, who have demonstrated on numerous occasions over the past year against European regulations that they believe are too restrictive.
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