EU sticks to reform

European Union agriculture ministers held their nerve last week amid world financial turmoil to pass far-reaching agricultural reforms.

These include the abolition of setting aside arable land (where farmers are obliged not to produce anything on 10 per cent of their land), increasing milk quotas (which will end in 2015) and directing a portion of farmer subsidies into rural development payments.

The Rural Development Fund will be reshaped to provide a better response to the new issues faced by European agriculture, including climate change, better water management and biodiversity and the production of green energy.