Leading agricultural lawyer warns of sea of confusion on CAP

A leading West Midlands agricultural lawyer believes the recent "health check" on the Common Agricultural Policy has left the farming community swimming in a sea of confusion about the future.

Iain Morrison, a partner in the Agricultural and Rural Affairs Division at MFG Solicitors in Worcester, said proposals from the European Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel had reversed established policies and were so radical many farmers were unsure of where they stood.

"Brussels is proposing to readjust its long established agricultural policies on CAP as a knee jerk to the new world of food shortages and soaring food prices," he said.

"This will lead the European Union into uncharted territory which is causing considerable concern in the agricultural sector across Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Shropshire."

Mr Morrison said that large landowners would have part of their EU subsidies taken away because the funding would be switched to create a greener environment.

The largest farm/estates currently receiving more than £200,000 in annual subsidies would lose 16 per cent from 2009.

Mr Morrison said it remained to be seen whether the British Government would accept the idea of "capping" payments to large landowners.

"Such ideas have been strangled at birth by the Treasury in the past because we have more large farms than other EU countries.

"If greater food production is to be the main priority it certainly creates a bizarre paradox if European politicians also want to make agriculture less environmentally damaging.

"These are strange times and therefore extremely uncertain for the farmer.

Some of the proposals said Mr Morrison made sense and would be welcomed by many British farmers.

Set-aside payments to farmers to leave one tenth of the land fallow would be scrapped in a bid to boost the European harvest of cereals in the face of trebling world prices.

Limits on milk production through the quota system – in place for 25 years – would be relaxed and then abolished by 2015 in the hope of reducing pressure on rising dairy prices.

"Although there will be no change in the CAP budget of £32 billion until 2013 it is clear that Ms Boel's plans have now set the pattern for change," said Mr Morrison.

Mr Morrison said that the Chancellor Alistair Darling had sent a letter recently to EU colleagues suggesting the worldwide surge in food prices offered the opportunity to scrap the Common Agricultural Policy.

He had called for the lifting of all restrictions and taxes on EU food imports from the rest of the world.

"French President Sarkozy is pushing in the opposite direction of course.

"He wants the EU to return to tougher barriers on food imports.

"All this indicates that future conflict between EU member states is on the cards – with the British farmer caught once more in the middle of it all."