European Commission farmer fund – NFU response

The NFU has welcomed today’s announcement by the European Commission of a €500million euro package to alleviate the pressure in the farming sector but has said it is unclear how much would come to Britain.

The announcement comes on the same day as the NFU and a delegation of its farming members joined a mass demonstration of 5,000 farmers in Brussels.

NFU President Meurig Raymond said: “We appreciate the €500m for dairy farmers across Europe, particularly as this comes at a time when EU budgets are under ?tremendous pressure. It is currently unclear how much of this would come to Britain.

“However, one of the main priorities is the short term cash flow difficulties facing farmers across all sectors. The Commission has announced that member states can pay up to 70% of their direct payment from October 16, provided that the necessary checks have been carried out.

“We welcome this opportunity but clearly the main stumbling block is around the flexibility required for checks and inspections so that member states do not run the risk of a disallowance fine. This is not clear from the Commission’s announcement today and is one of the main barriers to issuing early payments.

“It is disappointing that the Commission won’t review the intervention price in the dairy sector because we feel it has a role to play. An increase in the price could help put a price floor in the market and boost confidence in the dairy sector. We will continue to press the Commission on this point.

“We believe there needs to be a fundamental culture change across the whole supply chain and we very much welcome the Commission’s steps to address this so far. However, we need to go much further if we are to offer British farmers the same protection they receive at home when they trade abroad.

“It should be stressed that this afternoon’s Agriculture Council is still underway. We will further scrutinise the announcement and look forward to learning more about reactions from other member states.”