The term of office of the current members of the Executive Board of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation is extended for a period of 3 months, which will expire on 21 August 2013.

The term of office of the members of the Executive Board of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, as amended by Decision No 2/2011 of the ACP-EU Committee of Ambassadors (5), will expire on 21 May 2013.

27. Considers that direct payments should be reserved only for active farmers; realises that, under the system of decoupled direct payments, each farmer who uses farmland for production and maintains GAEC should receive direct payments; calls on the Commission therefore to devise a definition of ‘active farmer’ which the Member States can administer without additional administrative effort or expenditure, while it should be ensured that traditional farming activities (full-time and various degrees of part-time), regardless of legal status, are classified as active farming and that the range of land tenure and various forms of land mana ...[+++]gement arrangements as well as management of common land are taken into account; considers it necessary to specify that the definition of an active farmer should exclude cases in which the administrative costs of making a payment are higher than the actual amount of the payment itself;

27. Considers that direct payments should be reserved only for active farmers; realises that, under the system of decoupled direct payments, each farmer who uses farmland for production and maintains GAEC should receive direct payments; calls on the Commission therefore to devise a definition of ‘active farmer’ which the Member States can administer without additional administrative effort or expenditure, while it should be ensured that traditional farming activities (full-time and various degrees of part-time), regardless of legal status, are classified as active farming and that the range of land tenure and various forms of land mana ...[+++]gement arrangements as well as management of common land are taken into account; considers it necessary to specify that the definition of an active farmer should exclude cases in which the administrative costs of making a payment are higher than the actual amount of the payment itself;

Pursuant to Article 9(1)(a) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1290/2005 of 21 June 2005 on the financing of the common agricultural policy (2), Member States, within the framework of the common agricultural policy, are to adopt all legislative, regulatory and administrative provisions and take any other measures necessary to ensure effective protection of the financial interests of the Community, and particularly in order to check the genuineness and compliance of operations financed by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund and the Eur ...[+++]opean Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, to prevent and pursue irregularities, and to recover sums lost as a result of irregularities or negligence.

In Poland, a new law allows the president of the agricultural market agency to issue an administrative decision whereby agricultural payments received unduly or in excess of the amount due are treated as customs debts and can therefore be recovered by administrative enforcement procedures.