Agricultural aid and legal certainty; digital maps

23.3.2021

Question for written answer  E-001606/2021
to the Commission
Rule 138
Teuvo Hakkarainen (ID)

The supervisory authorities for agricultural aid monitor areas covered by arable land. Farmers are responsible for the accuracy of the parcel map they submit. It is not unusual for the supervisory authority to have checked the parcels the previous year and, as a result, decided that the area is one that qualifies for aid, but, the following year, after the farmer has made use of the area so defined, to have possibly redefined the area – one approved in a previous year – judging it to be wrong and subject to a penalty. The authorities’ arbitrary acts, which fuel fear and insecurity, cause farmers to think less highly of the EU.

• 1.What does the Commission intend to do to safeguard the legal certainty of farmers and their proportional treatment, and should farmers be able to trust the digitalised maps produced by the authorities and checked just once, or is it fair that farmers can be penalised for using a map that was approved by an authority the previous year?
• 2.Should there be a compensation scheme in place for psychological, financial and functional losses sustained as a result of mistaken official procedures, whereby a farmer would be paid for wrongful losses suffered, or should supervision on the part of authorities that are guilty of infringements of the law in respect of a farmer be made more efficient and should the culprits have to face the same sort of penalties as the entrepreneurs under surveillance?