Farm leaders meet with ministers as CAP reform enters final stage

Farm group members have met with Defra Farming Minister David Heath and Scottish Secretary of State Michael Moore at the Highland Show as the CAP reform debate enters its final phase next week when the Council of Ministers meets in Luxembourg.

The EU Presidency is currently held by the Republic of Ireland and they are aiming to conclude negotiations in Luxembourg on Monday and Tuesday.

The Agriculture Council meeting of June will take place in Luxembourg starting on June 24, under the presidency of Mr Simon Coveney, Irish Minister of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

The Commission will be represented by Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Dacian Ciolos. A delegation of MEPs, headed by EP Agriculture Committee Chairman Paolo De Castro, will also be present in Luxembourg. Political trilogues (between the Council, the European Parliament and the Commission) will take place – all with a view to moving closer to a political agreement on CAP Reform. (The aim is to start the final political trilogue in Brussels as soon as possible after the Council, followed by a meeting of the EP Agriculture Committee.)

Irish Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney said: "The challenge for the current round of CAP reform is to deliver, in good time, a Common Agricultural Policy that is fit for purpose, that is coherent with the Europe 2020 strategy for recovery and growth and that supports the twin goals of competitiveness and sustainability. In the case of Ireland, we want a policy that promotes sustainable intensification of production, environmental stewardship and a vibrant rural economy and that is consistent with our Food Harvest 2020 strategy.

"The key will be to reach a fair compromise, which levels the playing field without putting productive farmers out of business. As is the case with any negotiation, the final position will be somewhere in between my approach and that of the Commission. I am fighting to ensure that the best possible outcome for all farmers is reached, in a balanced and fair way."

NFU Scotland’s President, Nigel Miller, will be in Luxembourg for that meeting with the possibility that the debate may shift to the European Parliament in Brussels later that week.

While significant improvements and concessions have been gained in some areas, and others expected to be addressed when implementation rules are agreed this autumn, there still remain deep concerns about some aspects of greening and the option to use coupled support in order to help stop the decline in the livestock sector.

Rob Livesey, who chaired today’s meeting said: “With crunch time on CAP looming, farmers representing every corner of Scotland and all our production sectors have made use of valuable time with these key politicians ahead of the council meeting in Luxembourg next week.

“We received reassurances today that the Minister recognises that coupling is a Scottish priority and, while the detail of the CAP scheme has yet to be finalised, confirmation that if coupling is permitted then Scotland will have flexibility in devising its own measures. We, in turn, asked for Defra’s support in ensuring that Europe will permit coupling and at a level that would make a difference to our crucial livestock sector.

“We also reiterated that flexibility is similarly essential for our arable sector and that greening measures recognise existing systems of production in Scotland and the constraints that climate and geography place on the crops that we can grow.

Farm group leaders in the UK have said they will be meeting with Defra Secretary of State Owen Paterson this Friday.

“However, as CAP negotiations evolve almost by the day, every opportunity to discuss our impress our key issues face to face is invaluable."

In May, a group of influential farming leaders lobbied the Chairman of the Agricultural Committee and the President of the Agriculture Council on CAP reform.

The event took place in Brussels and was hosted by Italian farming organisation Coldiretti. It brought together the Presidents of the leading Italian, French, German and Irish Farming Unions to present a common voice on the outstanding CAP reform concerns.

"All indications are that there will be a political agreement on CAP reform by the end of June" said NFU President Peter Kendall who has joined farming leaders to lobby on CAP.

"It will be Chairman De Castro’s and Minister Coveney's responsibility to broker that deal. That's why today's event has been incredibly timely, to remind the key negotiators of what EU farmers want to see achieved in the final agreement."

Copa and Cogeca Presidents warned EU Farm Ministers in Dublin today that if no agreement on Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform is reached by June, a deal could be delayed for years, increasing the instability for EU farmers and agri-cooperatives.

The move came as EU Farm Ministers discussed the issue at their informal meeting.

Speaking at the meeting, Copa President Gerd Sonnleitner underlined the need for a final agreement by June to enable the new CAP to be introduced in 2014, albeit with a transitional period. He pointed out that an agreement is important not only for farmers and the agricultural sector, but for Europe as a whole.

“The farm sector has played a very positive stabilising role over the last few years of crisis. We must ensure it continues to do so”. A positive and rapid decision between the 3 institutions is crucial to enable farmers and cooperatives to get on with their production and investment plans.

Cogeca President Christian Pees highlighted the vital need to strengthen the role of producer organisations, pointing out that recent EU Commission reports show that producer organisations, like cooperatives, can help farmers get a better price for their produce.

NFU President Peter Kendall said: "From my perspective, I’ve always felt that this CAP reform has been a missed opportunity. We’ve got just 37 harvests to increase our food production to the level where it can feed 9 billion people and just 12 harvest before another billion mouths need to be fed. We’ve undertaken countless initiatives to cut red tape and bureaucracy and policy makers have spent the best part of the past 50 years trying to keep the policy as common as possible so that farmers are able to compete fairly on the EU’s single market.

"Instead of delivering a genuine policy framework that embraces and fosters a modern, market orientated, competitive farming sector, free of unnecessary red tape, I fear we will be left with a complex mish-mash of competing and contradictory policy components which will leave farmers facing more bureaucracy and more distortions in the market than ever before. But there is still time to sort out some of these concerns, many of which were echoed by the Presidents from the other farming organisations today.

"It is vital that we maintain an EU-led approach to agricultural policy, limiting as much as possible powers to create distortions or renationalising the budget through transfers from pillar one to pillar two. We were all in agreement that if member states insist on transfers, that there must a requirement for national treasuries to provide co-financing of those funds. To do otherwise would be renationalisation of the CAP by the back door."

Scottish Liberal Democrat MEP George Lyon called on the European Parliament to scrap planned budget increases ahead of the next series of votes on EU spending.

Lyon, a vice chair of the EU Budget Committee, tabled amendments that, if implemented, would see the one off costs of funding the European election absorbed within a real-terms budget freeze.

Commenting, Mr Lyon said: "At a time when finances are tight it is only right that the European Parliament exercise the same restraint as families and businesses across Scotland who are working hard to balance the books.

"The fact that we have already been able to cut travel costs and freeze allowances is welcome but it is clear that there is more work that needs to be done.

"Our priority has to be working for a stronger economy and a fairer society and helping people to get on in life. We need to be investing in jobs and growth and therefore it is essential that the one off costs of funding the European election is absorbed within a real terms freeze in the Parliament’s budget.

"This is not a party political issue and I would hope that MEPs from all parties will back my amendments."

Kendall continued: "We also agreed that all of the unnecessary bureaucracy in the proposals must be pared right back and that greening must be implemented in a way which means that productive land is not taken out of production.

"This point has already been stipulated by the European Heads of States and Governments back in February, but I am yet to see meaningful changes to the proposals to deliver this. We also need clarity about what precisely member states can implement by way of alternative, but equivalent greening conditions. The other Presidents and I want to see genuine win-win greening measures that deliver both environmental and economic benefits. But so far the Commission has remained wedded to its concept of forcing all arable farmers to grow at least three different crops and setting aside land from production.

"We were also united in our calls for strengthening the role of farmers in the supply chain. Producer organisations which offer genuine negotiating powers to farmers will be a part of that, but so too are policies which bring farmers and consumers closer together. If there is one lesson we can take from the horsemeat scandal which has rocked the EU meat sector in recent months, it’s that consumers demand to know more about their food and want short supply chains. The CAP can and does continue to play a major part in ensuring that consumers continue to get the locally produced, quality product they demand."

Scottish Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead said: "When other countries were securing decent funding levels for their farming, environmental and rural community programmes, the UK position was driven by an obsession with cutting the budget at any price.

"Scotland went into this budget round with a pitifully poor position - with the fourth lowest Pillar 1 and lowest Pillar 2 allocations per hectare in the whole of Europe. It now seems clear that as a result of being represented by London, Scotland will end up at the bottom of the pile for both Pillars when the new CAP comes into force.

"Sadly it is too late to re-do the EU budget deal. The only way the UK government can mitigate the damage for Scotland is through the within-UK allocation of the UK’s receipts, on which I have already been pressing Owen Paterson for some weeks.’