Fræðaþing landbúnaðarins - 13.02.2009, Side 28

26 | FRÆÐAÞING LANDBÚNAÐARINS 6, 2009
The Common Agricultural Policy up to 2013:
models for implementation
Simon Kay
GeoCAP Action, Agriculture Unit
Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen
Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, Ispra, Italy
The geo-referencing of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) data has been led by the
introduction of GIS, remote sensing and geo-positioning technology as a means of
verifying “cross compliance”, or baseline environmental requirements of the
legislation, and calculating payments based upon area rather than production.
Member states have a wide range of technical choices for implementation of CAP
management, in some cases exploiting pre-existing reference systems such as
cadastral or topographic mapping datasets, in others starting from scratch. The
GeoCAP action at the Commission's Joint Research Centre advises the Commission
and Member States on how to proceed with such implementations, and is regularly
requested to respond to evaluations linked to co-fmanced investments by Member (or
accession) States, often justified as the infrastructure required for CAP compliance.
Whilst (geo) information inanagement is the primary focus for GeoCAP, control
methods for checking CAP claims is an important operational activity, characterised
by two mainstream approaches:
i) Control with Remote Sensing, a method currently applied and financed by
more than 20 member states, for which a need for technical innovation,
standardisation, monitoring and evaluation is required from the stakeholders
(Member States, industry and the Commission alike); and
ii) GNSS (GPS) parcel measurement, again used in nearly every member state
and now evolved into the benchmark method used in audit checks. Both
technologies require close monitoring of technology changes (e.g. Galileo,
new remote sensing instruments) as well as a large degree of operational
activity (technical guidelines, quality control programs, missions).
The presentation will give a background to geo-information management in the CAP,
discuss aspects of “cross compliance”, and provide some insight on the challenges
faced in such major infrastructure projects and show-case some of the better examples
of implementation.
Outline of thc presentation
Rationale:
Agriculture expenditure in the EU in 2009 is the EU’s most important policy
instrument financially, impacting
• agricultural practices,
• environmental sustainability,
• and the economic livelihood of rural areas.
Aid payments - under either of the two main pillars of the CAP - still make up the
largest single component of the EU annual budget (around €56 billion in 2009). (By
contrast, the largest instrument in “Sustainable growth” is Convergence, €39B, vs.
€41B for Agriculture and Direct payments).