22 CADERNOS DE ANÁLISE E PROSPETIVA CULTIVAR N.º 27 JANEIRO 2023 – Custos de contexto In 2007, the creation of the ‘Single CMO’, merging 21 different common organisations of the market for different groups of agricultural products into one regulation, was also an important simplification effort. This marked the new ‘safety net’ character of public intervention, while it also enabled further simplification in relation to market management in the years to come. Important future changes concerned the abolition of dairy and sugar quota that improved competitiveness of the EU sectors, while decreasing administrative burdens for beneficiaries. The 2008 reform is known as a ‘Health Check’ of the CAP. This reform built on and completed the 2003 shift to decoupled payments and – as might be expected from a health check – also emphasized simplification of the policy and in particular the need to reduce bureaucracy for farmers, a priority for Member States. In March 2009, the Commission published a second Communication on CAP simplification taking stock of the extensive range of actions undertaken since 2005 and sketching further work to achieve substantial simplification by 2012. Waves of reform and simplification characterised the CAP reform process since the 1990s. Nevertheless, the 2013 reform may be considered as a shift in focus. It was the reform that introduced ‘greening’, requiring certain practices beneficial for the environment for 30% of direct income payments. The cost of control was debated intensively during this reform, both with regard to the design of the ‘greening measures’, and in relation to simplification of several administrative mechanisms of the CAP (including for cross compliance and control systems), also to avoid unnecessary administrative burdens. In 2015, the then Commissioner for agriculture and rural development Phil Hogan made simplification of the CAP a top priority, focusing in particular on the implementation of CAP policies. He introduced a range of modifications to simplify the 2013 CAP, but the Commission also concluded that the past five or more waves of simplification had not satisfied the political desire for a simple and effective policy. On the contrary, the environmental pressure on agriculture and the 2013 reform (‘greening’) demonstrated a growing challenge that required a new response. In its 2017 Communication on ‘The Future of Food and Farming’, the Commission announced a ‘new delivery model’ for the CAP1. 1 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52017DC0713&from=PT A new delivery model: CAP Strategic Plans The Commission concluded that a more performance- and result-oriented policy that would also be simpler to manage required a new management approach. It proposed a CAP based on national strategic plans with increased responsibilities for Member States within an EU framework. Member States and the European Parliament agreed with this new approach, while strengthening the EU framework to ensure the common nature of the policy. Member States’ Strategic Plans, approved by the Commission, apply as of 1 January 2023. Through these plans, Member States have the possibility to tailor the tools and measures available to reflect the reality of their own conditions and the particular challenges which they face. This is achieved through less prescription, fewer detailed provisions and exceptions at EU level, while requiring that detailed rules and measures are set at Member State/regional level, closer to the reality of farmers. Previous EU-level rules can be classified into those which are maintained at the EU level, those which are now determined at the Member State level and those which will simply no longer be required. The rules that continue at EU level will ensure the common nature of the policy. Rules at Member State level give them the opportunity to set their eligibility conditions in a better targeted way, matching the reality of their farmers, thereby achieving implicit simplicity that cannot be reached at EU level. Indeed, it is also the essence of subsidiarity that rules are set, if they are to be set at all, at the best and most effective level. This flexibility to target, design and combine actions in line with local conditions enables targeting actions in a more strategic way using an intelligent policy design. These actions will be subject to performance measurement, with a greater focus on results rather than compliance. In other words, more focus on what we actually want to achieve in terms of, for example, biodiversity rather than on measuring the width of hedges. To ensure a level playing field in terms of controls, a number of key requirements for basic systemic elements is maintained, including an identification system for agricultural parcels, a geo-spatial application system, an area monitoring system or a control and penalties system. The uptake of new technologies by Member States, such as digitisation and use of satellites, will have an important impact on administrative burden. The shift towards perfor-
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