EU livestock farm subsidies and cross-compliance controls on agricultural subsidies

If you have a livestock farm that receives EU subsidies, your farm may be selected at random for a sampling-based animal welfare inspection. At these farms, we check compliance with EU legislation and with Finnish legislation concerning animal welfare.

Our national legislation is in many respects stricter about animal welfare matters than EU legislation. Enforcement inspections are principally not announced in advance. 

Enforcement of cross-compliance standards

In order to be granted certain agricultural subsidies, the recipient must comply with certain additional conditions that have to do with good agricultural practice. The recipient will have committed to practising agriculture according to certain criteria when applying for the subsidies. 

We enforce compliance with these additional conditions on production animal farms with a view to food safety, notification of animal diseases and animal welfare.

Each year, a number of farms are selected for enforcement of additional condition based on a random sample or a weighted sample. Principally, we do not announce inspection visits in advance. 

We also enforce additional conditions on the basis of animal welfare inspections conducted by ourselves and of inspections conducted by local authority officials.