IFA & ICOS Sign Stockholm Declaration on CAP with Other Farm Leaders
The Irish Farmers’ Association and co-op representative body ICOS have signed the Stockholm Declaration in Sweden today with other farm leaders from across Europe.
It calls for a CAP budget maintained at least at its current level and adjusted for inflation, with genuinely ring-fenced funding. The CAP must remain a truly ‘Common’ policy, with its own dedicated and protected budget, if Europe is serious about safeguarding its Single Market and preventing an unprecedented renationalisation of agricultural policy.
IFA President Francie Gorman said the revised proposals put forward by the Irish Presidency last weekend do not recognise what needs to be done for food security.
“The proposal is to allocate €293bn to the EU CAP budget. EU farmers need €500bn to build on-farm resilience, to encourage young people into our sector, to ensure food security and to enhance the sustainability of a very fragile sector,” he said.
ICOS President Edward Carr said, “Alongside all European farmers and co-operatives, we’re sending a clear message that Europe must strengthen, not weaken, its commitment to agriculture. A strong, fair and properly funded CAP is essential to the future of Irish farming, our co-operative sector and rural communities. Food security must be recognised as a strategic priority. The Government must push hard for a CAP budget that supports a competitive, resilient and sustainable agricultural sector in Ireland and across Europe for the future.”
The Declaration calls for farming to be recognised as a pillar of Europe’s security, preparedness and defence. The production of food, feed, fuel and fibre is a strategic asset, while farmers and agri-co-operatives constitute Europe’s first line of defence in preserving productive territories and ensuring a reliable and affordable food supply.
The Declaration also calls for agriculture to be placed at the heart of Europe’s competitiveness agenda. It advocates stronger markets and crisis instruments, greater investment in innovation, water resilience, infrastructure, digitalisation and the bioeconomy, and a simpler, more proportionate CAP that respects the diversity of European farming.
Copa-Cogeca, the umbrella organisation representing European farmers and agricultural co-operatives, including the IFA and ICOS, has written to Taoiseach Micheál Martin, urging the Government to support the Stockholm Declaration in discussions with EU leaders on the future of CAP and the EU budget.
