The Commission has set out a new framework for future direct payments to farmers. The Commission propose to cancel existing entitlements to the Single Farm Payment (SFP) and to award entitlements to the new Basic Payment in May 2014.
The purpose of the rural development part of the consultation proposals is to seek views on the proposal from the European Commission regarding support for rural development from 2014 onwards.
The proposed regulation for the Horizontal Financial Regulation is concerned with
having a single legal framework for financing the two existing agricultural funds: the European
Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development
(EAFRD). The proposed regulation therefore replaces the existing finance and controls regulation as well as, taking in certain elements of the current Direct Payments and Rural Development Regulations, for example cross-compliance.