영국 조건불리지역정책의 환경기준 도입과정과 전망

The Greening Process of the Policy for Less-Favoured Areas in the UK

The LFA policy of the EU has been criticised for its adverse impact on environmental protection since the establishment in 1975. Even though the LFA policy has played a crucial role in improving agricultural production and farm income in the less-favoured areas, many authors in Europe blamed the policy for incurring intensive farming that resulted in detriment of valuable environmental assets and landscape in LFAs. In considering the criticism, the EU imposed limitation on stocking density by the EU regulation 2328/91 that implemented in the UK for the greening of the LFA policy. Since then, the UK has not only reinforced the limits of stocking density but also expanded agri-environmental schemes into the whole country. Especially, the environmental conditions on the LFA policy were strengthened by the Agenda 2000 reform of the CAP. The reform applied the cross-compliance principle to all areas of the CAP schemes. Thus, the UK changed the HLCA to the HF A in 2000 that caused debates on the relevance of the policy since the designated areas and the conditions for HFA payment are overlaid with those of agri-environmental schemes. Accordingly, the UK is now considering disuse or integration of the HF A with the environmental stewardship scheme which launched in 2005.