Political compromise needed for CAP, NFU warns

Political compromise will be necessary over the next six months if ministers hope to agree on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) said Maeve Whyte, Director of the NFU Office in Brussels.

The European Union's budget will shape the future direction of the CAP and a final decision would not be taken on reform until the budget for 2014 and 2020 is agreed.

Some CAP proposals are hotly debated, they include measures to set a higher environmental standard and equalising payments in Eastern and Western EU nation states.

"We are looking at countries which have 350 horsepower tractors vs countries that have draft oxen" said MEP Stuart Agnew who criticised the proposed reforms and said the EU 'has become far too big to have a CAP'.

There are fears in France that the new EU budget could cut the subsidies given to farmers. The Cypriot presidency of the European Union published a document saying "the total level of spending proposed by the Commission... will be revised downwards".

But UKIP MEPs have expressed criticism of the amount that the UK contributes to the EU budget.

"We are looking at a latitude that extends 200 miles north of the Arctic circle, down to the bottom corner of Cyprus. Personally, I don’t think it is viable, particularly with all the different languages involved" Agnew said.

But Maeve Whyte said there was a 'big difference' between the 27 member states regarding the budget for the next seven years.

"Until there is unanimity amongst them our concerns on CAP such as greening, modulation and transition cannot be fully addressed."

Under the CAP greening proposals, farmers will need to grow at least three different crops and leave 7% of their land fallow - a policy that critics say could damage food production in the future.

"Setting aside more land for non-agricultural purposes when market signals clearly point to the danger of fully guaranteed food supply soon becoming a thing of the past" said Hamish McBean, National Beef Association chairman.

Farming groups have been urging the UK and the EU to call of the greening plans and have been warning consumers that the most likely development is a strain on world food supplies.

Countries outside of the EU including Brazil, Russia and India all have significant capacity to raise their agricultural output.

But, proposal to leave 7% of land fallow, in areas to be named "ecological focus areas" (EFAs), had "the greatest potential to deliver significant environmental benefits", a Commons committee report said.

"But while we in Europe must do our bit too boost productivity in these regions, we too cannot shirk our responsibility to produce more here, more sustainably" Raymond said.

"That’s why we remain anxious about the direction of plans to reform the Common Agricultural Policy, which may hamper our ability to produce more food. If Europe doesn’t seek to play a full part in increasing food production in future, global agricultural commodity prices will rise further and the world’s poorest people will be hit the hardest, just as we saw in 2008,” said NFU Deputy President Meurig Raymond.

"As things stand in this ever-evolving situation the European Commission want the EU’s total budget to increase but with the CAP budget frozen which in real terms would mean a 12 per cent cut" said Maeve Whyte.

"But this doesn’t go far enough for some member states, including the UK , who want the overall budget reduced dramatically, while others such as France want the CAP budget to remain the same."

Meanwhile, the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee is working its way through over 7,000 amendments to the CAP reform proposal with a view to finding 'compromises'.

The Irish Government is due to take over the rotating Presidency of the EU from Cyprus in January and will have a crucial role to play in hammering out a deal, she added.

Maeve Whyte ended, "In summary, we have six months of chaos ahead of us, the process is, and will remain, massively complicated and no one knows what’s going to happen, however if an EU budget is not agreed there are mechanisms in place to allow funds for the single farm payment to roll on year on year."