Farming leaders in talks with Ministers ahead of CAP 'crunch time'

Ahead of CAP talks reaching their climax in the next few weeks, NFU Scotland's President, Nigel Miller and staff have met with Defra minister, Owen Paterson and his advisors to reiterate Scotland's priorities which have yet to be addressed in concluding discussions between the EU Commission, EU Parliament and Member State governments via the EU Council.

While significant improvements and concessions have been gained in some areas, and others expected to be addressed when implementation rules are agreed this autumn, there still remain deep concerns about some aspects of greening and the option to use coupled support in order to help stop the decline in Scotland's livestock sector.

NFUS officials also took the opportunity to discuss UK issues, especially ways of resolving the loss of red meat levy for livestock born and reared in Scotland but slaughtered in England, which is costing Scotland around £500,000 per annum and has been exacerbated by the loss of pig processing capacity at Broxburn following Vion's retraction from the UK.

Speaking after the meeting, NFUS President, Nigel Miller said: "EU CAP discussions are reaching crunch time, and tough decisions will have to be made as EU institutions and member states horse trade in order to retain their priorities. The Minister still believes that a decision will soon be made in Luxembourg by the Irish Presidency, which is what we would have hoped.

"Less good, however, is the news that the flexibility we so desperately seek for our arable farmers has still not been achieved, so we impressed emphatically on Mr. Paterson the need to ensure that our limited arable acres will not be devalued by an inappropriate EU straitjacket.

"We re-emphasised the importance of targeting coupled support to producers hit hardest by the move to an area-based payment system. The Minister had been in front of the Scottish Parliament's rural affairs committee in the morning where MSPs questioned him about delivering a fair share of the UK budget to Scotland, bearing in mind the EU Commission's aim of paying a uniform rate of 196 euros per hectare by 2020.

"Defra is now fully aware of the importance to Scotland of giving support only to active farmers and the need for adequate mapping systems to ensure we can regionalise our area payments.

"CAP aside, we cannot ignore the issue of Scotland losing red meat levy money as livestock that have been born and raised here are slaughtered south of the border. We should, at least negotiate an interim solution so that research capability and promotional activity are not impaired.

"There is real scope for the UK to get ahead of the game in improving our livestock databases so that in addition to basic traceability formation we can capture food chain information that carries disease and meat quality data too.

"The levy issues emphasised movements increased of livestock from Scotland to other parts of UK and potential to improve livestock databases so that they carry not only basic traceability information but can also be used as to capture and report food chain information, which would cover disease and meat quality issues. This approach is already being developed successfully in the Republic of Ireland and is something we must pursue if we are to remain competitive in the global marketplace.

"We shall reconvene with Mr Paterson and his agriculture minister, David Heath at the Highland Show, and continue our close and frequent contact with Cabinet Secretary Richard Lochhead and his staff too; however, as CAP negotiations evolve almost by the day, every opportunity to discuss our impress our key issues face to face is invaluable."

In May, a group of influential farming leaders lobbied the Chairman of the Agricultural Committee and the President of the Agriculture Council on CAP reform.

The event took place in Brussels and was hosted by Italian farming organisation Coldiretti. It brought together the Presidents of the leading Italian, French, German and Irish Farming Unions to present a common voice on the outstanding CAP reform concerns.

"All indications are that there will be a political agreement on CAP reform by the end of June" said NFU President Peter Kendall who has joined farming leaders to lobby on CAP.

"It will be Chairman De Castro’s and Minister Coveney's responsibility to broker that deal. That's why today's event has been incredibly timely, to remind the key negotiators of what EU farmers want to see achieved in the final agreement."

Copa and Cogeca Presidents warned EU Farm Ministers in Dublin today that if no agreement on Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform is reached by June, a deal could be delayed for years, increasing the instability for EU farmers and agri-cooperatives.

The move came as EU Farm Ministers discussed the issue at their informal meeting.

Speaking at the meeting, Copa President Gerd Sonnleitner underlined the need for a final agreement by June to enable the new CAP to be introduced in 2014, albeit with a transitional period. He pointed out that an agreement is important not only for farmers and the agricultural sector, but for Europe as a whole.

“The farm sector has played a very positive stabilising role over the last few years of crisis. We must ensure it continues to do so”. A positive and rapid decision between the 3 institutions is crucial to enable farmers and cooperatives to get on with their production and investment plans.

Cogeca President Christian Pees highlighted the vital need to strengthen the role of producer organisations, pointing out that recent EU Commission reports show that producer organisations, like cooperatives, can help farmers get a better price for their produce.

NFU President Peter Kendall said: "From my perspective, I’ve always felt that this CAP reform has been a missed opportunity. We’ve got just 37 harvests to increase our food production to the level where it can feed 9 billion people and just 12 harvest before another billion mouths need to be fed. We’ve undertaken countless initiatives to cut red tape and bureaucracy and policy makers have spent the best part of the past 50 years trying to keep the policy as common as possible so that farmers are able to compete fairly on the EU’s single market.

"Instead of delivering a genuine policy framework that embraces and fosters a modern, market orientated, competitive farming sector, free of unnecessary red tape, I fear we will be left with a complex mish-mash of competing and contradictory policy components which will leave farmers facing more bureaucracy and more distortions in the market than ever before. But there is still time to sort out some of these concerns, many of which were echoed by the Presidents from the other farming organisations today.

"It is vital that we maintain an EU-led approach to agricultural policy, limiting as much as possible powers to create distortions or renationalising the budget through transfers from pillar one to pillar two. We were all in agreement that if member states insist on transfers, that there must a requirement for national treasuries to provide co-financing of those funds. To do otherwise would be renationalisation of the CAP by the back door."

Scottish Liberal Democrat MEP George Lyon called on the European Parliament to scrap planned budget increases ahead of the next series of votes on EU spending.

Lyon, a vice chair of the EU Budget Committee, tabled amendments that, if implemented, would see the one off costs of funding the European election absorbed within a real-terms budget freeze.

Commenting, Mr Lyon said: "At a time when finances are tight it is only right that the European Parliament exercise the same restraint as families and businesses across Scotland who are working hard to balance the books.

"The fact that we have already been able to cut travel costs and freeze allowances is welcome but it is clear that there is more work that needs to be done.

"Our priority has to be working for a stronger economy and a fairer society and helping people to get on in life. We need to be investing in jobs and growth and therefore it is essential that the one off costs of funding the European election is absorbed within a real terms freeze in the Parliament’s budget.

"This is not a party political issue and I would hope that MEPs from all parties will back my amendments."

Kendall continued: "We also agreed that all of the unnecessary bureaucracy in the proposals must be pared right back and that greening must be implemented in a way which means that productive land is not taken out of production.

"This point has already been stipulated by the European Heads of States and Governments back in February, but I am yet to see meaningful changes to the proposals to deliver this. We also need clarity about what precisely member states can implement by way of alternative, but equivalent greening conditions. The other Presidents and I want to see genuine win-win greening measures that deliver both environmental and economic benefits. But so far the Commission has remained wedded to its concept of forcing all arable farmers to grow at least three different crops and setting aside land from production.

"We were also united in our calls for strengthening the role of farmers in the supply chain. Producer organisations which offer genuine negotiating powers to farmers will be a part of that, but so too are policies which bring farmers and consumers closer together. If there is one lesson we can take from the horsemeat scandal which has rocked the EU meat sector in recent months, it’s that consumers demand to know more about their food and want short supply chains. The CAP can and does continue to play a major part in ensuring that consumers continue to get the locally produced, quality product they demand."

Scottish Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead said: "When other countries were securing decent funding levels for their farming, environmental and rural community programmes, the UK position was driven by an obsession with cutting the budget at any price.

"Scotland went into this budget round with a pitifully poor position - with the fourth lowest Pillar 1 and lowest Pillar 2 allocations per hectare in the whole of Europe. It now seems clear that as a result of being represented by London, Scotland will end up at the bottom of the pile for both Pillars when the new CAP comes into force.

"Sadly it is too late to re-do the EU budget deal. The only way the UK government can mitigate the damage for Scotland is through the within-UK allocation of the UK’s receipts, on which I have already been pressing Owen Paterson for some weeks.’