The heading of this post is taken from the title of the speech delivered by the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Phil Hogan when addressing the EP COMAGRI on 3 December last. It follows his commitment in his confirmation hearings to a simplification and subsidiarity strategy for the CAP. It seems simplification will be a big buzz word in CAP discussions in 2015. But what can we expect from this initiative, and how important is it likely to be in practice?
Simplification: a Sisyphean task
CAP simplification has been a mantra of all previous Commissioners. For example, shortly after taking up office as Commissioner for Agriculture in 1995, Franz Fischler, in a speech on 28 September 1995, declared:
… Read the restFor my part, I intend to contribute to review existing E.U. legislation, notably in my area of competence, so as to make the C.A.P. easier to understand and to apply. C.A.P. simplification is an overriding objective, not only because our farmers, in particular the smaller ones, seek it and need it, but also because, without it, it will prove exceedingly difficult to implement the C.A.P.