Impacts of the flat rates and digressive schemes on the distribution of Direct Payments in the EU

The Mid-Term Review and the Health Check reforms of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) include numerous options for national implementation of the Single Payment Scheme. After the far-reaching decoupling of Direct Payments, a further reform of the Common Agricultural Policy is necessary with respect to the financial guidelines to be established for the period after 2013. Referring to Germany, the principles of the hybrid and regional models and their effects on the distribution of Direct Payments are shown. With regard to future CAP, the impacts of alternative payment options are analysed based on farm individual FADN data of EU-27. Options of digressive premium schemes, including capping with regard to labour input and regionalised or EU-wide flat rates are analysed.