THERE HAS been a mixed reaction to the published outline of a reformed Common Agricultural Policy after 2013, which agriculture commissioner Dacian Ciolos says will be “greener, fairer, more efficient and more effective”.
Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith welcomed the commission’s commitment to the three strategic aims of ensuring security of food supply, sustainable management of natural resources and maintenance of viable rural areas.
“This is just the start of the formal debate that will lead to conclusions in the EU Council of Agriculture Ministers on the general orientation of future Cap policy,” he said. “I am looking forward to this debate.”
Pledging to defend payments to Irish farmers, Mr Smith said some of his concerns had been allayed, especially in relation to the continuation of the decoupled direct payments to farmers.
The Irish Farmers’ Association hit out at a commitment to a redistribution of direct payments that would not be based on historical references. IFA president John Bryan said he feared that would result in devastation for productive farms across all enterprises.
“This would seriously undermine agricultural production in Ireland, with damaging consequences for farm incomes, agricultural output, food exports, jobs and the rural economy. ”
The commission document gave a series of options for dealing with direct payments from giving basic income support to linking them to green policies and phasing them out altogether.
Mr Bryan said he feared some of the options would lead to a major shift in farm supports from the high-cost production systems in Ireland and western Europe to the low-cost economies of eastern Europe.
Mr Ciolos had made it clear the future system of direct payments could not be based on historical reference periods, but should be linked to objective criteria.
“The current system provides different rules for the EU-15 and the EU-12, which cannot be continued after 2013,” he said.