Phil Hogan, the EU Commissioner for agriculture and rural development, said he would listen closely to European farmer feedback, whom he called the custodians of the soil.

“While I will robustly defend the importance and value of the CAP (common agricultural policy), I will listen closely to constructive feedback regarding its implementation,” he told farmers at the UK National Farmers’ Union’s annual conference.

“I believe that improvement is possible in many areas which is why I have made simplification a top priority for my work program in 2015.”

He said he outlined a number of areas where our rules can and should be simplified over the next months and years.

He said he would review the rules on Environmental Focus Areas and any other aspect of the Basic Payment Scheme which would improve the lives of farmers.

He added that more there were more than 200 other European Commission regulations which would be considered.
“This exercise has significant simplification potential for operators in the agri-food sector, which I fully expect UK farmers to exploit to the greatest degree possible.”

“Simpler rules will make for greater competitiveness, but achieving simplification will not necessarily be simple”, he said.

Mr Hogan underlined that agriculture has always been an innovative sector, but the innovation is needed to achieve our goals and agriculture must continue to become more productive and more efficient.

He said that the Rural Development Programme will support diversified economic activity in rural areas, notably through supporting 8 business start-ups and innovative projects.

“The rollout of fast broadband in rural areas will see greater use of data collection and data analytics in crop and livestock management. We are entering the era of Big Data for Precision Farming, and I believe British farmers are well positioned to make the most of the coming changes. Likewise, biomass, bio-energy and the bio-based economy will develop further.  The European Commission is currently also working to improve access to finance for farmers, particularly young farmers, as they start their career in agriculture. We are working on this in close cooperation with the European Investment Bank”, explained the EU Commissioner.

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