L'agricoltore in attività

The author focuses on the European Union and the domestic legislative framework related to the definition of “active farmer”, underlining its critical points and its ambiguities. The author proposes some indications on the reasons of the failure of the model of active farmer introduced by EU legislation in order to make European Union action more efficient, with a view to containing expenditure in the agricultural sector. According to the author, the reasons for the failure derive from a lack of clarity on the real needs that the European Union and domestic bodies want to express through the filter of the active farmer. The author underlines how these regulatory measures have had an exclusive interest: a reduction in expenses, by postponing the identification and implementation of concrete measures to a wide discretionary power of individual member states. This context, according to the author, has in fact determined that the role of active farmer has been rendered meaningless and has led to a weakening of efficient action to protect the financial interests of the European Union.