PURPOSE: to ensure the continuity of support to European farmers in the years 2019 and 2020.
LEGISLATIVE ACT: Regulation (EU) 2019/288 of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulations (EU) No 1305/2013 and (EU) No 1307/2013 as regards certain rules on direct payments and support for rural development in respect of the years 2019 and 2020.
CONTENT: the Regulation aims to ensure the continuity of support to European farmers in the years 2019 and 2020 by adapting two legislative acts of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP): rural development under Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 and direct payments under Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013.
As regards rural development, the Regulation provides for the possibility for Member States to modify the degressivity schedule for payments to areas which had received such payments in the previous programming period but which, in the current period, are no longer classified as areas facing natural constraints other than mountain areas in accordance with Article 31(5) of the Rural Development Regulation.
This amendment shall allow the calculation of transitional payments for the years 2019 and 2020 on the basis of payment levels for the period 2014-2020. It is foreseen that degressive payments shall start only in the year 2019, those payments shall start at no more than 80 % of the average payment fixed in the 2014-2020 programming period. The payment level shall be established in such a way that the end-level in 2020 is half of the starting level.
The Regulation also includes provisions regarding the possibility for Member States to transfer funds between pillars in calendar year 2020 (corresponding to financial year 2021). It calls for a transfer between pillars to remain possible in calendar year 2020 under the same conditions as currently standing and that the estimated product of reduction continues to be transferred from direct payments to rural development.
ENTRY INTO FORCE: 25.2.2019.
APPLICATION: from 1.3.2019.