Study on the Functioning of Land Markets in the EU Member States under the Influence of Measures Applied under the Common Agricultural Policy

The background to this study is the establishment of the Single Payment Scheme (SPS), providing decoupled support to farmers, which was the central element of the 2003 CAP reform. The Member States of the EU-15 had to implement the SPS at the latest by 2007. The Member States had some flexibility concerning the model of implementation. Member States could opt to apply payment entitlements based on historical individual reference amounts (the "historical model"), or alternatively, payment entitlements calculated as averages of the historical reference amounts of the region concerned (the "regional model") or a mix of the two approaches, either static or dynamic (the "hybrid model").