Welcome to IEEP's site for Cross Compliance

About Cross Compliance

Cross compliance is a policy tool that seeks to improve the environmental performance of agriculture in the EU. It was made compulsory by the 2003 reform of the CAP, and since January 2005, farmers have been required to meet a range of environmental standards or risk losing some of, and in severe cases, all of their subsidy payment. There are two sets of standards for farmers to comply with. The Statutory Management Requirements (SMRs) are derived from 18 European Union (EU) Regulations and Directives, including the wild birds, habitats and nitrates Directives. These SMRs also include EU legislation relating to food safety and animal welfare. The other set of standards relates to 'Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition' (GAEC), where Member States have defined nationally specific standards relating to soil and habitat maintenance.

Cross Compliance Projects

Cross Compliance Network Project (2005-2007)
IEEP is currently the lead partner of a pan-European consortium for a project looking at the impact of cross compliance from several different dimensions.
Please visit this project's website.


Cross Compliance and the CAP (2002-2005)
Between 2002 and 2005 IEEP brought together ten organisations from across the EU to explore the background of cross-compliance in the CAP, lessons learned from its early implementation and opportunities for improving its use as an agri-environment instrument in the future. A series of six pan-European stakeholder meetings were held during project and four issues of a newsletter were produced.
Please visit this project's website.