After the approval of the European Regulations (basic acts) on the new Common Agricultural Policy at the end of 2013 by the European Parliament, the European Commission had to elaborate several Commission Delegated Regulations (delegated acts). EURAF has been following the process closely, to make sure that the provisions for agroforestry were not misinterpreted in the process.
Accordingly, in January 2014 we sent this letter to Mr Cioloş, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, and Mr Potočnik, Commissioner for the Environment, where we exposed our position paper on delegated acts. More specifically, EURAF advocated for full eligibility of tree lines in cultivated areas, of fodder trees and shrubs located in pastures, and also proposed accepting hedges up to 6 m wide.
After the approval of the delegated acts in Brussels, it was time for the Member States to make certain choices regarding the application of Pillar I and finalise the design of their Rural Development Programmes.
In October 2014 we published a position paper on a draft version of the LPIS guidance document, to improve the eligibility of trees in silvopastoral systems. Subsequently, in November 2014 we sent this letter to request the modification of the LPIS Guidance Document, notably to remove the contents that limit the "eligibility" of trees to their being actually accessible to farm animals for grazing.
