CAP Reform February 2013 update Reform will mean ‘business as usual’ so environmentalists disappointed Since the European Commission published its draft proposals in October 2011, they have been widely debated. The European budget has been agreed and the European Parliament has set out its negotiating position. Although the reform won’t be agreed until the summer at the earliest, it is not likely to be radical. It looks like the UK Government will have more flexibility on how to implement it and should be able to ‘manage around’ the most challenging, often political, issues, such as active farmer and capping.
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EU agriculture budget was agreed in January 2013 and has only been cut by 4% (2011 prices) – a good result Direct payments to farmers, now called Basic Payments, will continue but will be at least 30% lower Farmers can top the Basic Payment up with a ‘greening’ payment Farmers will have to do more ‘green’ work for their payments. Defra will have more say on this than originally thought UK will probably continue to receive a low level of Rural Development funding but this is still open for negotiation. If there is not a significant redistribution, agri-environment schemes will continue to be underfunded Capping of payments to ‘large farmers’ is unlikely to be introduced in the UK Basic Payments will only be made to ‘active farmers’. The original proposals were vastly complicated but, thankfully, Member States will have more scope to tailor this