35 Amendments of James NICHOLSON related to 2011/0288(COD)
Amendment 108 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 8
Recital 8
(8) Where a Member State accredits more than one paying agency, it is important that it designates a single coordinating body to ensure consistency in the management of the funds, to provide liaison between the Commission and the various accredited paying agencies and to ensure that the information requested by the Commission concerning the operations of several paying agencies is made rapidly available. The coordinating body should also be responsible for ensuring that remedial action is taken and that the Commission is kept informed of the follow-up and it should ensure homogeneous application of commoninternationally accepted rules and standards.
Amendment 119 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 19
Recital 19
(19) Budget discipline also demands a continuous examination of the medium- term budget situation. The Commission, when submitting the draft budget for a given year, should therefore present its forecasts and analyses to the European Parliament and the Council and propose, if necessary, appropriate measures to the legislator. Furthermore, the Commission should make full use of its management powers at all times to ensure compliance with the annual ceiling and, if necessary, propose appropriate measures to the European Parliament and to the Council or to the Council to redress the budget situation. If, at the end of a budget year, the annual ceiling cannot be complied with as a result of the reimbursements requested by the Member States, the Commission should be able to take measures allowing provisional distribution of the available budget, taking into account a margin of EUR 300 000 000 below that ceiling, among the Member States in proportion to their requests for reimbursement not yet paid, as well as compliance with the ceiling fixed for the year concerned. Payments for that year should be charged to the following budget year and the total amount of Union financing per Member State should be definitively established, as should compensation between Member States in order to comply with the established amount.
Amendment 120 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 20
Recital 20
(20) When implementing the budget, the Commission should operate a monthly early-warning and monitoring system for agricultural expenditure, so that, if there is a risk of the annual ceiling being exceeded, the Commission may at the earliest opportunity take the appropriate measures under the management powers at its disposal and propose other measures if those measures appear to be insufficient, taking into account the margin laid down in Recital (19). A periodic report by the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council should compare the evolution of the expenditure effected in relation to the profiles so far and give an assessment of the foreseeable implementation for the remainder of the budget year.
Amendment 138 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 41
Recital 41
(41) The main elements of that integrated system and, in particular, the provisions concerning a computerised database, an identification system for agricultural parcels, aid applications or payment claims and a system for the identification and recording of payment entitlements should be maintained. Member States may make appropriate use of technology when setting up these systems.
Amendment 146 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 53
Recital 53
(53) Statutory management requirements need to be fully implemented by Member States in order to become operational at farm level and ensure the necessary equal treatment between farmers. The Commission should issue guidelines on the interpretation of the rules on animal identification and registration for cross compliance purposes. Such guidelines should reflect, particularly in the case of electronic systems, that 100% accuracy is often not possible and therefore some tolerance should be built into guidelines. Guidelines should, where appropriate, such as in the case with electronic systems, provide for flexibility at farm level in order to strike the necessary balance between safeguarding the spirit of the legislation and applying proportionate administrative penalties only in the case of non-compliance directly and unequivocally attributable to the beneficiaries, in particular in respect of repeated failure of the technology in use.
Amendment 148 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 54
Recital 54
Amendment 185 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 7 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2
Article 7 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2
Amendment 201 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 9 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1
Article 9 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1
The certification body shall be a public or private audit body designated by the Member State which shall provide an opinion, drawn up in accordance with internationally accepted audit standards, on the management declaration of assurance covering the completeness, accuracy and veracity of the annual accounts of the paying agency, the proper functioning of its internal control system, the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions, as well as the respect of the principle of sound financial management.
Amendment 289 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 25 – paragraph 1
Article 25 – paragraph 1
1. With a view to ensuring that the annual ceilings set out in the Regulation (EU) No xxx/xxx [MFF] for the financing of the market related expenditure and direct payments are respected, an adjustment rate of the direct payments shall be determined when the forecasts for the financing of the measures financed under that subceiling for a given financial year indicate that the applicable annual ceilings, taking into account a margin of EUR 300 000 000 below that ceiling, will be exceeded.
Amendment 292 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 25 – paragraph 6
Article 25 – paragraph 6
Amendment 295 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 26 – paragraph 2
Article 26 – paragraph 2
2. If, on drawing up the draft budget for financial year N, there appears to be a risk that the amount referred to in Article 16 for financial year N will be exceeded, taking account of the margin laid down in Article 25 (1) of this Regulation, the Commission shall propose to the European Parliament and the Council or to the Council the measures necessary to ensure compliance with that amount.
Amendment 300 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 29
Article 29
Without prejudice to the eligibility for support under Article 29 and 30(2) of Regulation (EU) No RD/xxx, expenditure financed under the EAFRD shall not be subject of any other financing under the EU budget.
Amendment 346 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 44
Article 44
Amendment 422 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 61 – paragraph 2
Article 61 – paragraph 2
2. As regards the on-the-spot checks, the authority responsible shall draw its check sample from the entire population of applicants comprising, where appropriate, a random part and a risk-based part in order to obtain a representative error rate, while targeting also highest errorthe areas in which the risk of error is highest. When selecting the sample for checks, the Member State may take account of the following factors: – the size of the sums involved; – the outcome of earlier audits of the management and control systems; – voluntary participation in management schemes certified on the basis of recognised international standards.
Amendment 428 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 61 – paragraph 4 a (new)
Article 61 – paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Member States may reduce checks where the error rates are at an acceptable level.
Amendment 432 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 64 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1 – point b
Article 64 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1 – point b
(b) the rules on the minimum level of on- the-spot checks, which shall be set at the rate of 1% for schemes covered by a operational IACS or, in other cases, at the minimum rate necessary for an effective management of the risks, as well as the conditions under which Member States have to increase such checks, or may reduce them where the management and control systems function properly and the error rates are at an acceptable level;error rates are at an acceptable level, including time limits by which the Commission should respond to an indication that the MS intends to reduce its on-the-spot checks
Amendment 456 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 68 – paragraph 3 a (new)
Article 68 – paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Member States may make appropriate use of technology when setting up their 'integrated system'.
Amendment 458 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 69 – paragraph 1 – point f
Article 69 – paragraph 1 – point f
(f) a single system to record the identity of each beneficiary of the support referred to in Article 68(2) who submits an aid application or a payment claim.
Amendment 461 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 70 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2
Article 70 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2
This database shall in particular allow consultation through the competent authority of the Member State, of the data relating to the calendar and/or marketing years, starting from 20010. It shall alsoThis does not apply for those Member States who have a unit value of payment entitlements calculated in accordance with Article 22(1) of Regulation (EU) No xxx/xxx [DP]. For all Member States the database shall allow direct and immediate consultation of the data relating to at least the previous fiveour consecutive calendar years.
Amendment 463 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 70 – paragraph 2
Article 70 – paragraph 2
2. Member States may set up decentralised databases on condition that these, and the administrative procedures for recording and accessing data, are designed homogeneously throughout the territory of the Member State and are compatible with one another in orderin such a way as to allow for cross- checks.
Amendment 465 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 71 – paragraph 1
Article 71 – paragraph 1
The identification system for agricultural parcels shall be established on the basis of maps or land registry documents or other cartographic references. Use shall be made of computerised geographical information system techniques, including aerial or spatial orthoimagery, with a homogenous standard guaranteeing accuracy at least equivalent to cartography at a scale of 1:510,000.
Amendment 472 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 73 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 – point a a (new)
Article 73 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 – point a a (new)
(aa) a farmer does not have to declare his agricultural parcels with landscape features or buffer strips. That farmer shall however indicate in his application that he has these agricultural parcels at his disposal and shall, at the request of the competent authorities, indicate their location.
Amendment 476 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 73 – paragraph 2 a (new)
Article 73 – paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Member States may decide that an aid application or a payment claim that fulfils the requirements laid down in Paragraph 1 is to remain valid for a number of years provided that beneficiaries concerned are under the obligation to report any change to the information they first submitted.
Amendment 481 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 74 – paragraph 1
Article 74 – paragraph 1
The single system to record the identity of each beneficiary of support referred to in Article 68(2) shall guarantee that all aid applications and payment claims submitted by the same beneficiary can be identified as such.
Amendment 483 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 75 – paragraph 1
Article 75 – paragraph 1
1. In accordance with Article 61, Member States, through the paying agencies or the bodies delegated by them, shall carry out administrative checks on the aid application to verify the eligibility conditions for the aid. Those checks shall be supplemented by on-the-spot checks whose purpose shall be to monitor compliance with the provisions of the aid schemes and the level of inherent risk and whose number shall be adjusted in the light of inherent and control risks.
Amendment 543 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 91 – paragraph 3
Article 91 – paragraph 3
Amendment 553 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 92 – paragraph 2
Article 92 – paragraph 2
However, Article 91 shall not apply to beneficiaries participating in the small farmers scheme referred to in Title V of Regulation (EU) No xxx/xxx[DP] and to the beneficiaries receiving aid under Article 29(9) of Regulation (EU) No RD/xxx.
Amendment 569 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 93 – paragraph 3
Article 93 – paragraph 3
Amendment 615 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 97 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1
Article 97 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1
The penalty provided for in Article 91 shall be applied when the rules on cross compliance are not complied with at any time in a given calendar year (hereinafter referred to as ‘the calendar year concerned’), and the non-compliance in question is the result of a wilful act or omission which is directly attributable to the beneficiary who submitted the aid application or the payment claim in the calendar year concerned.
Amendment 676 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 110 a (new)
Article 110 a (new)
Article 110a Chapter IV Regionalisation Where appropriate and in accordance with their constitutional arrangements, Member States may implement provisions of the common agricultural policy at regional level
Amendment 725 #
Proposal for a regulation
Annex II — Main Issue "Soil and carbon stock" — GAEC 6
Annex II — Main Issue "Soil and carbon stock" — GAEC 6
Maintenance of soil organic matter level through appropriate practices including ban on burning arable stubble
Amendment 734 #
Proposal for a regulation
Annex II — Main Issue "Biodiversity" — SMR 2 — last column
Annex II — Main Issue "Biodiversity" — SMR 2 — last column
Article 3(1), Article 3(2)(b), Article 4 (1), (2) and (4), Article 5(a), (b), (d)
Amendment 742 #
Proposal for a regulation
Annex II — Main Issue "Biodiversity" — SMR 3 — last column
Annex II — Main Issue "Biodiversity" — SMR 3 — last column
Article 6 (1) and (2), Article 13(1)(a)
Amendment 749 #
Proposal for a regulation
Annex II — Main Issue "Landscape, minimum level of maintenance" GAEC 8
Annex II — Main Issue "Landscape, minimum level of maintenance" GAEC 8
Retention of landscape features, including where appropriate, hedges, ponds, ditches, trees in line, in group or isolated, field margins and terraces, and including a ban on cutting hedges and trees during the bird breeding and rearing season and possible measures for avoiding invasive species and peststake all reasonable steps to avoid encroachment of unwanted vegetation, such as invasive species on agricultural land.
Amendment 757 #
Proposal for a regulation
Annex II — Main Issue "Identification and registration of animals" SMR 6 —last column
Annex II — Main Issue "Identification and registration of animals" SMR 6 —last column
Articles 3, 4 and 5