Agricultural activities as a condition for entitlement to direct payment

The aim of this article is to define the concept of "agricultural activity", as a condition for direct payments. This requires a relationship of this concept to the definition "of an active farmer". The draft regulation art. 4 of the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and the Council establishing rules for direct payments to farmer under support schemes within the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy, which is a new definition of agricultural activity, indicates the need to refer to this basic definition for agricultural law. In the classical formulations, agricultural activity is recognized as a sphere of business, with an indication of the economic, professional aspect of the production activities of the farmer. New regulations concerning the rules and procedures for the granting of EU fund, relating to the possession of agricultural land, raise the need to re- examine this issue, taking into account the conditions that combine possession of agricultural land with the performance of agricultural activities. This trend reflects the changes in the rules of the Common Agricultural Policy and is based on the assumption that the protection is not due to the mere fact of possessing of agricultural land, but also due to other fulfilled by agricultural producers functions: production, environmental and social. The presented approach requires analysis of the definition of agricultural activity on the basis of public law, private law and agricultural law. To determine the activity of which revenues are recognized as income from agricultural activities should furthermore benefit from the experience of European countries, Italy and France, which have regulations of this issues. They indicate the types of activities associated with agricultural activities and give them special preferences. In conclusion, it should be noted that the new rules for the granting of payments, which exclude from the system farmers receiving a certain income from nonagricultural activities are in conflict with the objectives of the Common Agricultural Policy, which prefer the diversity of activities in the farms. Diversification of agricultural activities, as appropriate for the needs of sustainable rural development, is also an important axis of the structural support financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.Uniwersytet Śląsk