The European Commission has announced that it is “well on the way” to meeting its target of reducing the administration burden on agriculture by 25 per cent by 2012.

A new report by the Stoiber group highlights a number of measures taken over the past three and a half years, including the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which reduce red tape for farmers, companies involved in the food business and administrations, and promise to reduce annual costs by hundreds of millions of euros, which will render European farming more competitive.

Since 2005, the commission has pushed ahead with its CAP Simplification Action Plan, repealed hundreds of obsolete acts, introduced reforms that streamline the CAP, and reworked law-making practices and IT systems.

A key change was the recent Health Check agreement, which will render the CAP much less complex. Other measures on the commission's agenda include the possibility of streamlining cross-compliance rules, a more regular review of legislation and possible changes to EU quality policy, including marketing standards and the system of geographical indications.

Mariann Fischer Boel, commissioner for agriculture and rural development, said: "We've been making great progress with our efforts to make the CAP simpler and more user-friendly. Simplifying the policy means less hassle for administrators, but more importantly, it means that farmers can spend more time in the field doing what they do best and less time doing paperwork.

“The changes we have made will also reduce the burden to farmers by hundreds of millions of euros. At a time of economic difficulties, this is a real bonus."

The commission has been focusing on simplifying the CAP since it published its first communication on the issue in October 2005, as part of the overall commission strategy on better regulation.

The commission has set a number of goals in the near future, including implementing new training for officials, the possible harmonisation of cross-compliance rules, improvements to quality policy and training on writing skills to render legislation easier to read.