An MEP for Ireland Midlands-North West has said that the current agreement on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for 2023 to 2027 is “an improvement over the status quo”.
Sinn Féin’s Chris MacManus welcomed the vote today in the European Parliament’s Agriculture and Rural Development Committee – of which he is a member – to accept the deal what was agreed at the end of June by the presidency of the council of agriculture ministers and representatives from the parliament.
The deal will now be voted on by a full session of the parliament at a future date – most likely November.
“What farmers need now is certainty.
“In the Midlands-North West constituency, thousands of farmers will welcome convergence increasing to 85% of the national average and the introduction of a redistributive payment,” MacManus said, referring to the Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS).
He added: “Both of these proposals are less ambitious than Sinn Féin considers necessary, but they are an improvement on the status quo and we still have the opportunity to build on them through our national strategic plan.”
He also highlighted the need to improve the circumstances of smaller farmers.
“Between 2005 and 2014 Europe lost four million farmers. Small farmers are struggling more than ever to survive.
“If we fail to reduce the gap between those on large basic payments and those at the other end of the scale, we put the whole future of rural Ireland and Europe in jeopardy,” the MEP argued.
“Many towns and villages depend on the network of family farms dotted around them to generate economic activity… From a public policy perspective, agricultural aid makes sense,” MacManus added.
It was confirmed today that the committee had passed the agreement in three separate votes.
All three of Ireland’s MEPs on the committee – MacManus, Luke Ming Flanagan and Colm Markey – voted to pass the deal on all three votes.
The three votes that took place today in the committee were each on a different aspect of the CAP reform.
The vote on the strategic plan passed by 38 votes to eight, with two abstentions; the vote on the common market organisation in agricultural practices passed by 40 votes to five, with three abstentions; and the vote on financing, management and monitoring of the CAP passed by 39 votes to seven, with two abstentions.