1 Cross-compliance and payment conditionality
15.39 A farmer receiving a payment under the basic payment scheme must observe the ‘cross-compliance’ conditions set out in the 2013 Horizontal Regulation,103 and the domestic regulations implementing them with appropriate derogations (where these have been permitted in the European regulations).104 Cross-compliance consists of two separate elements:105
•Adherence to a number of statutory management requirements relating to public, animal and plant health, the environment and animal welfare.
These are established by European law. The statutory standards relate to existing EU Directives on water protection and biodiversity, food security and animal welfare. The recipient must, for example, observe the management requirements imposed by Arts 3 and 4 of the 2009 Wild Birds Directive, which apply to land in special protection areas to prevent damage and disturbance of species.106 Similarly, the management requirements set out in Art 6 of the Habitats and Species Directive of 1992 are within the statutory management requirements, and cross compliance will therefore require farmers to comply with the provisions of national legislation implementing both the Birds and Habitat Directives.107 The domestic regulations implementing the requirements for land management in Nitrate Vulnerable Zones under the EU Nitrates Directive of 1991 must also be observed.108 There are also statutory management requirements to observe EU legislation on animal health, food safety, and the identification and registration of animals, such as cattle and pigs.109•All agricultural land, including land that is no longer used for production purposes, must be maintained in good agricultural and environmental condition. Each member state is required to establish minimum requirements for good agricultural and environmental condition by reference to the criteria established in the Community legal order.110
15.40 Importantly, the cross-compliance rules specify land management prescriptions that must be adhered to by applicants for rural payments not only under the basic payment scheme, but also under the agri-environment schemes funded under Pillar I of CAP (Countryside Stewardship, Entry Level Stewardship and Higher Level Stewardship), and the Woodland Grants Scheme. The conditions set out below must therefore be observed not only as a condition of receiving the basic payment; payment under the relevant agri-environment schemes or the woodland grant scheme is also conditional upon these requirements being met.
15.41 The Secretary of State and the Welsh Ministers have been designated as the competent national authorities for the purposes of providing farmers with a list of the relevant statutory management requirements and good agricultural and environmental conditions to be respected.111 They are required to ‘ensure that all agricultural area, including land which is no longer used for production purposes, is maintained in good agricultural and environmental condition’. Member States must ‘define, at national or regional level, minimum standards for beneficiaries for good agricultural and environmental condition of land… taking into account the specific characteristics of the areas concerned, including soil and climatic condition, existing farming systems, land use, crop rotation, farming practices and farm structures’.112 In addition, for 2015 and 2016 the Member States that were members of the EU at the beginning of 2004 must also ensure that land that was under permanent pasture at the date provided for area aid applications in 2003 (ie in England this was 15 May 2003) is maintained as permanent pasture113.
15.42 The standard of good agricultural and environmental condition should not be confused with notions of good agricultural practice that apply in the context of rural development policy. The two standards, though similar, fulfil different functions. The standard of good agricultural practice is applied as a reference point in EU law to set a benchmark for agricultural practices that will attract funding for obligations under agri-environment programmes – only obligations exceeding good agricultural practice are eligible for funding under the Rural Development Regulation.114 The concept of Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition, on the other hand, puts in place a mandatory set of obligations that must be adhered to by all agricultural producers in receipt of income support in the form of the basic payment.