Potential Changes to EU Budgeting Framework Very Concerning for Agriculture – IFA
IFA President Francie Gorman has outlined his deep concern over proposed changes to how EU funding will be allocated to Agriculture under the next CAP programme.
Francie Gorman held a meeting with Christiane Canenbley, Director within DG Budget, the EU department responsible for the Multi Annual Framework (MFF), which governs how the EU Budget is allocated, this morning in Brussels.
“It is clear that the European Commission are driving on with proposing a Single Fund approach which could see Pillar I and Pillar II of CAP funding grouped together along with fifty other spending programmes within the EU Budget,” Francie Gorman said.
“This would be the end of CAP as we know it and could potentially have massive consequences for Irish Agriculture given that Pillar 2 payments accounted for 38% of average Family Farm Income in 2023 according to the Teagasc National Farm Survey. It would also have major implications for funding for other rural development programmes in Ireland, such as Leader funding,” the IFA President added.
Proposals on the MFF are expected to be published on 16th July along with CAP proposals from DG Agriculture. The process of devising CAP proposals for the next programme has been extremely rushed with little or no consultation taking place ahead of the announcement of the proposals.
“We made it clear that IFA believe the single fund proposal is a flawed approach that has the capacity to completely undermine how vulnerable sectors in particular are supported by CAP. The Commission have talked of the need for greater simplification, trust and engagement going forward. Yet here we are with rushed proposals with little engagement beforehand and potentially a complete upheaval of how CAP funding is delivered to farmers,” Francie Gorman continued.
The final MFF proposals, when published by the European Commission will then go the European Parliament and then the EU Council of Heads of State before being finalised; a process which is likely to take 18 months or more.
“It’s absolutely critical that both the Taoiseach and the Minister for Agriculture stand up for Irish farmers in the upcoming negotiations on both the MFF and CAP.”
“We cannot allow Irish farmers to be the fall guys for a flawed approach to EU budgeting,” the IFA President concluded.
