GAEC implementation in the EU: situation and perspectives

Abstract

The concept of Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC) was introduced by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform in 2003 within the framework of cross-compliance and implemented by the Member States since 2005. It includes the purposes of maintaining agricultural activities, avoiding the abandonment of the agricultural land and sustaining the environment. While Statutory Management Requirements (SMR), second component of the cross compliance, have introduced the link between CAP payments and the respect of existing legislative acts in the fields of environment, public, animal and plant health and animal welfare, the GAEC represent a new piece of legislation that farmer shall be compliant with (in order to receive full CAP payments) in strategic areas as soil, land management and, more recently after the Health Check in 2009, water management. The implementation of GAEC is thus a process where Member States play a decisive role as the European legislative framework leaves flexibility to them to define the precise content of a GAEC minimum requirement taking into account local conditions. In fact, the definition of GAEC requirements should take into account the objectives that GAEC is expected to introduce in the CAP such as avoiding the abandonment of agricultural land, assuring a minimum level of sustainability of farming practices, recognizing the strict link between agriculture activities and the management of land and landscape.....