The enforcement of environmental criteria, so-called greening, will appear as a new, compulsory element within the new funding system beginning in 2015, György Czerván said at the press conference organised in Tata, central Hungary, to launch a series of events aimed at presenting the new funding model of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)

The Minister of State for Agricultural Economy also stated that this year was a transitional year and as such there would be no change to the funding system, with the added advantage, however, that the authorisation of Brussels is no longer required to affect the advance payment of subsidies, meaning that the distribution of funding would occur in the usual manner beginning on 6 October.

Mr Czerván explained that, following discussions with the Hungarian Chamber of Agriculture, the Government had decided last year to retain the Single Area Payment (SAPS) area-based system until 2021. The construction, which Hungarian farmers are used to using, will continue to assure the wide-ranging and efficient payment of direct funding.

During his lecture, Mr. Czerván presented the compulsory and voluntary elements of the new system, of which he places significant emphasis on the "green component", which is a new compulsory element for receiving funding. Within the framework of the new measure, which is officially called "funding provided for agricultural practices that are favourable to the environment", the member state must use 30 percent of its annual direct funding budget. The motivational character of the construction may lead to an improvement in environmental performance, which at an E level is capable of promoting the use of agricultural practices that have a favourable effect on the environment. Within the framework of the budget title, which is simply referred to as greening, three basic measures must be affected:

1. Crop Diversification. Within the framework of this requirement, which goes beyond the usual crop rotation system, 1 crop may be cultivated on areas of land under 10 hectares, but two different crops must be sown in areas of between 10 and 30 hectares, while three different types of crop must be grown in areas exceeding 30 hectares.

2. Maintaining Permanent Pastures. The overall national area of pastures and meadows may only be reduced by a total of 5% over the next 7 years until 2021. The requirement must be conformed to at a national level, however, meaning that the level of pasture maintenance may differ from farmer to farmer.

3. Ecological target Area. The preservation and improvement of the biological diversity of agricultural units, in the interests of which ecological areas must be designated.

The Minister of State also indicated that certain farmers may be exempted from the above requirements within the framework of equivalent practices if they automatically conform to one of several conditions (e.g. organic farms or certain projects run by the Hungarian Chamber of Agricultural Economics).

(Press Office of the Ministry of Rural Development)