Types of guidance. The above overview demonstrates that the issuing of guidance documents in the area of direct payments has become one of the core activities of the DG AGRI services responsible for the regulatory and implementing aspects of the direct payments legislation. These categories of guidance documents do not necessarily reflect one of the five types of guidance documents intro- duced in section 3.2. Instead, the five different types of guidance feature in direct payments guidance documents. Firstly, direct payments guidance documents often contain interpreta- tive guidelines that address vague or openly formulated legal provisions. For instance, the permanent grassland guidance provides guidance on the interpretation of the definition of permanent grassland that gave rise to many questions from Member States.33 Interpretative guidelines are also given in relation to the active farmer provisions, or concerning the ques- tion what it means that ecological focus areas need to be ‘adjacent’ to arable land.34 Secondly, characteristic for many direct payments guidance docu- ments is that they assist Member States in making choices on the form or method of implementing measures that outline how the provisions in direct payments regulations are ‘best met’. These guidelines thus take the form of ‘implementing guidance’. Such implementing guidelines can for instance be found in the EFA layer guidance document which makes clear that for the design of the EFA layer in the LPIS system, the Member States should ‘as a minimum requirement’ register the EFAs that have been declared by the farmers.35 Thirdly, direct payment guidance documents also contain explana- tory guidance that explains or summarises the complex direct payments schemes. An example is the paragraph that elaborates on ‘what/why checking/controlling and measuring’ in the guidance document on on-the- spot checks.36 Another example is the aid applications guidance document, which comprises an extensive overview of the information that is to be included in the pre-established form to be provided by the beneficiary.37 Remarkably, in several places the aid applications guidance also refers to implementing guidance laid down in other DG AGRI guidance documents, such as the LPIS guidance and the OTSC guidance document. Fourthly, the many technical guidance documents issued by the JRC and Commission services clarify what technical methodologies could or should be used by the Member States for the implementation of the in...
