Member State agencies paying out EU agricultural aid carry out detailed checks on around 5 % of area aid scheme applicants because certain requirements, such as the actual crop type grown, cannot be checked retrospectively. Over the years, classic on-the-spot inspections have been largely replaced with remote sensing checks; however, these remote checks still require significant human interaction to interpret the satellite images.
Since March 2017, the EU’s Copernicus Sentinel satellite programme has provided free, high-resolution images, which are significantly better than those already freely available in terms of spatial resolution, frequency and long-term availability.
The use of new technologies for monitoring should increase the effectiveness of environmental and climate measures. The new technologies also have the potential to reduce the costs of controls in Member States, while checking more beneficiaries.
This audit aims to identify the use of these new imaging technologies so far, the support provided by the Commission, best practices identified in the Member States already using them, and challenges hindering the faster and wider deployment of the new technologies to monitor the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP). The audit could have a timely impact on the CAP monitoring requirements for the post-2020 CAP.
If you wish to contact the audit team, you may do so at the following email address: ECA-agri-monitoring-audit@eca.europa.eu.