EU farm ministers opened a debate on Sunday on how European agricultural policy might become more flexible and better tailored to reflect the vast differences between the bloc's 25 member states.
Last year's reform of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) already includes several options for the way in which governments choose to apply changes in the system of paying subsidies to their farmers.
But according to a working paper being discussed by the ministers in the western Dutch town of Noordwijk there is still room for CAP policy to give greater "national" leeway for EU countries to raise the efficiency of their farm policies.
"In an enlarging European Union the variety of climates and cultural and regional differences continues to grow," said the paper, authored by current EU president the Netherlands.
"It is far more difficult than ever before to find 'one fits all' solutions," it said. As an example of this, it cited the EU's obligations on land qualifying as permanent pasture that were hammered out in the June 2003 farm reform package.
The reform includes rules to protect land that is designated as permanent pasture from changing into arable land, with possible negative consequences for the richness of biodiversity.
For a parcel of land to qualify as permanent pasture, it must be seen to be grassland for at least five years. This status may not be changed without prior consent from Brussels.
"This approach seems to ignore that there are member states where a massive conversion of permanent grassland into arable land will never occur," the working paper said.
"It would have been preferable (in the reform) to give those member states some flexibility in choosing the most efficient and effective way of monitoring this obligation."
Whether or not a parcel of land is designated as permanent pasture can affect the amount of EU subsidy a farmer receives.
Under the reform deal EU countries have several choices for how they apply a revamped subsidy system that breaks the link between how much a farmer produces and the cash he receives.
WTO SUGAR RULING: The European Union is very likely to appeal against last month's rebuke from a world trade panel that attacks its sugar policy but can easily adapt reform plans to incorporate the criticisms, Europe's farming chief said on Sunday.
Brazil, Thailand and Australia won a clear victory against the EU at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in August with their claim that the bloc broke world trade rules by exceeding limits on sugar export subsidies, among other things.
The EU, which is now discussing proposals that envisage a drastic reform of its 35-year-old sugar policy, was almost certain to appeal against the ruling from the WTO panel, EU Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler said.