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Irish MEPs contribute to debate on CAP reform (4th Feb, 2010)

February 4, 2010 at 5:43 pm Leave a comment

Irish concerns about the upcoming reform of the Common Agricultural Policy in 2013 will be relayed to Brussels and will inform a report being drafted by the European Parliament, following a meeting of international experts and MEPs in Dublin today.
Scottish MEP George Lyons (former President of the National Farmers Union in Scotland), who is in charge of drafting the report, visited Ireland for what he said was ‘a constructive exchange of views’ on Irish priorities for CAP reform.
Irish farmers and the Irish food sector currently get €1.6 billion a year in EU funding, so talks at the meeting centred on how best to protect this financial envelope against threatened cuts in the EU agriculture budget. The environmental lobby in particular is pushing for a significant reduction in the 42 per cent of EU expenditure devoted to agriculture, but Irish MEP Mairead McGuinness warns that this would be a ‘retrograde step’.
Key among Irish concerns is the desire to retain the single farm payment at current levels, but the food sector in Ireland is also anxious to see the introduction of measures to address volatility in the market place.
Independent MEP Marian Harkin also called for the need for a balancing in the way CAP payments are shared out internally. ‘For too long, farmers in the west and in the border counties have received less money than other regions,’ she said.
Although CAP reform is still three years away, this meeting and others like it across EU member states provide an important platform for each country to state their case. MEP Liam Aylward said the report being drafted will the ‘the first insight into the future shape of the CAP…it will heavily influence the European Commission’s final proposals, especially since the European Parliament has equal legislative power for Agriculture under the Lisbon Treaty.’

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