APIA specifies that Regulation (EU) No. 2116/2021 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the financing, management, and monitoring of the common agricultural policy regarding the integrated administration and control system provides, in Article 70, the obligation of Member States to establish and use a monitoring system (checks by monitoring) for the areas that must be operational from January 1, 2023.

At the same time, Article 10 of Implementing Regulation (EU) No. 1173/2022, which lays down rules for the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2116/2021 of the European Parliament and of the Council, establishes the Agricultural Area Monitoring System, which has as its

Purpose the verification of eligibility conditions for the proper management of support applications submitted by farmers

For all surface-related interventions financed by EAGF

For certain surface-related interventions financed by EAFRD using data provided by Sentinel satellites under the Copernicus program.

This represents a procedure for regular and systematic observation, tracking, and evaluation of all eligibility criteria, commitments, or obligations that can be monitored using data obtained from Sentinel satellites of the Copernicus program or other data of at least equivalent value. It is used to observe, track, and evaluate agricultural activities and practices carried out on the plots subject to area-based interventions in order to reach a conclusion regarding the eligibility of the requested support.

Using an artificial intelligence algorithm developed based on a time series of images from Sentinel 1 and 2 satellites, in combination with information contained in farmers' declarations, the following are identified:

land use category,

type of agricultural crop,

stage of minimum work performed: plowing/sowing,

sowing date,

mowing/grazing, harvesting,

burned areas,

flooded areas,

areas with no agricultural use within reference plots, etc.

Plots for which the algorithm's result matches the farmer's declaration are marked with a green flag and are confirmed to 95.2% in terms of land use category, crop type, and requested area. They will be subject to administrative control for the determination and payment of subsidies.

Plots for which the algorithm's result does not match the farmer's declaration are marked with a red flag and will undergo a follow-up clarification action with the farmer.

The purpose of this action is to clarify the identified non-compliances, such as the presence of other crops, the presence of ineligible areas, the modification of the land category, the presence of ineligible land use, in order to support farmers so that their applications can be properly managed in administrative control and authorized for advance payment starting from October 16, 2023.