Cross Compliance Überprüfung

In the area of agricultural direct payments under the first pillar of the CAP, payments for the restructuring of vineyards and payments for rural development measures for farm owners, the term cross-compliance plays an important role. It means that applicants must comply with certain obligations in order to receive payments.

The obligations extend to

• compliance with basic requirements for farm management in the areas of human, animal and plant health, environmental protection, climate change, good agricultural condition of land and animal welfare,
• the maintenance of agricultural land in good agricultural and ecological condition, and
• the preservation of permanent grassland.

Sanctions are imposed if the existing technical regulations for these areas are not complied with. Depending on the severity, extent, duration or frequency of the infringements, a reduction of between 1% and 100% of the aforementioned payments is applied for one or more calendar years.

As a rule, 1% of all payment recipients in Rhineland-Palatinate are checked annually for cross-compliance by the responsible specialist legal authorities, i.e. veterinary authorities, lower nature conservation authorities, the Supervisory and Service Directorate (ADD), the State Office for Social Affairs, Youth and Care and the Service Center for Rural Areas (DLR-Mosel).

Information on the legal basis can be found at the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL).