Robust & Dedicated CAP Budget Essential Starting Point

IFA President Francie Gorman has said securing a robust, inflation-adjusted dedicated CAP budget in the next Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) has to be priority number one for Commissioner Hansen and Minister Heydon.

“The finer details of CAP – the need for its traditional two-pillar structure and better targeting and redistribution of payments to the genuine active farmer – are important, but if the CAP budget within the MFF is not retained, we are on the hind foot from the start.  It becomes a very different conversation then as to the targeting of funds and ‘who needs it most’,” Francie Gorman said.

“While EU’s budgetary needs are many, new priorities should not dampen the fundamental importance of existing priorities. Agriculture and food security remain as important strategically as ever,” he said.

“We are getting very mixed messages at the minute in Brussels from different quarters as to what the EU Commission proposals for the MFF and new CAP proposals next Wednesday might look like. It seems the Commission’s Single Fund approach, despite broad resistance, still appears to be on the table. Some are saying CAP will be inside the Single Fund; others are saying it will be outside. Some are saying the next CAP will have only one pillar; others are saying the two-pillar structure will be preserved. Others again say that while Pillar I income supports (BISS; CRISS etc) will remain, some Pillar II rural development supports may be lost to other funds, such as the Cohesion Fund,” he said.

IFA Rural Development Chair John Curran said, “What is clear is that the Single Fund proposal would be the end of CAP as we know it and could potentially have massive consequences for Irish agriculture, particularly the vulnerable sectors and how they are supported”.  

“We all have seen the implementation challenges of under-resourced and poorly designed farm schemes last time round. This needs to be avoided, but fundamentally we need to be starting from solid footings and a robust CAP budget,” John Curran said.

“We’ve our CAP post-2027 Principles document circulated within Europe and to our Irish MEPs, and we’ve done a piece of high-level analysis in the Irish context, looking at CAP’s contribution, conservatively, to economic, environmental and social sustainability based on information to hand, and the economic impact by county and region where Pillar II supports are vital. For Pillar II alone, it’s worth €875m a year or close on €8,000 per farm, with its relative importance greater the further west you travel,” he said.

“These Pillar II supports are all Commission priorities too – innovation; young farmers; organics; agri-environment etc were all called out within the Commission’s Vision for Agriculture & Food report. It’s nonsensical and outright contradictory if the Commission were to merge these into other broader non-agri specific funds. The problems in rural areas will not be solved by moving financial support away from farmers,” he said.

“The Commission has talked of the need for greater simplification, trust and engagement going forward. Yet here we are with huge uncertainty, rushed proposals with little engagement and potentially a complete upheaval of how CAP funding is delivered to farmers. It’s just not good enough,” Francie Gorman said.

“Copa-Cogeca is running a petition on the need for a robust, dedicated and fully-funded two-Pillar CAP. I would encourage our members to take the time to sign it. A unified message from Irish and European farmers will reinforce the ongoing work to deter the EU Commission from making this flawed step,” the IFA President concluded.

Sign the petition here.