Commission should look at full impact of LFA proposals

The European Commission should look at the full impact of new Less Favoured Area (LFA) criteria - including the abandonment of socio-economic factors - in light of information provided by Member States, the Farmers’ Union of Wales said today.

"The EC has clearly accepted the need to look more carefully at the potential impact of applying a simplistic set of biophysical criteria across the European Union in order to assess LFA status," said FUW hill farming committee chairman Derek Morgan.

"However, they should also take the opportunity to properly assess the impact of shelving the current socio-economic criteria - a proposal that we believe would have a significant impact on our communities and environment."

The call came after the EC announced that Member States would be required to compare existing LFAs against those defined by a new set of eight "biophysical criteria" and send their results to the Commission by October 2009, so that a reformed scheme can be drawn up.

However, the Commission has stated that socio-economic objectives should be removed from the main aims of LFA payments and be made up for by targeted measures under other Axes of Pillar 2.

"Less Favoured Areas and previous area classifications have played a key role in sustaining Welsh upland communities and environments for many decades and changes to the criteria upon which they are based have the potential to damage valuable environments, while simultaneously causing upheaval in many communities," said Mr Morgan.

"Measures under other Axes will simply not make up for the damage caused by the declassification of areas currently recognised as being Less Favoured.

"Any model that increases economic pressures, either locally or nationally, will reduce the incentive for individuals to continue to manage land which will, in turn, have a detrimental impact on delicate natural environments that rely upon the continuity of farming.

"This would also weaken the framework within which future environmental measures might be applied, and would also effectively remove buffer zones from around many areas that are of environmental importance - buffers that are currently taken for granted despite being an integral part of wider ecosystems.

"The EC should now use this opportunity to take a step back and review their plans in totality."