CAP Reform JUNE 2013 UPDATE The ‘less Common’ Agricultural Policy reform allows Member States greater freedom to implement agricultural policy so farmers are worried and environmentalists disappointed The European Commission, European Farm Ministers and the European Parliament reached a political agreement on some of the details of CAP reform on 26 June. Some of the most important issues for the UK, notably on capping payments to large farmers and transfers of funds between pillars, will be debated during further talks on the Budget later this year. The reform is not radical other than in the way it could transfer more power on how to implement the ‘broad’ policy to Member States. UK farming bodies are worried that Defra will transfer direct payment funds to rural development, which they claim would put UK farmers at a competitive disadvantage. Many of the worst elements for the UK have been watered down, such as capping payments to large farmers and a complicated way of deciding how payments are allocated. We are disappointed that the UK does not get a bigger slice of the overall European rural development budget and that it is not a bigger step towards truly sustainable farming.
Key Points + EU agricultural budget was agreed in January 2013 and has only been cut by 4% (2011 prices) – a good result – Direct 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 continue to receive a low level of Rural Development funding and so agri-environment schemes will continue to be underfunded + Payments to ‘large farmers’ will not be cut back as much as originally proposed + Direct payments will only be made to ‘active farmers’. The original proposals have been simplified and Member States will have some scope to tailor this
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