Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue will leave for Brussels today (Tuesday, May 25) for further negotiations on reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Speaking in the Seanad earlier, the minister said his “key objective” for these talks it to “ensure we have flexibility and discretion to be able to make our own decisions at national level within our own national CAP plan”.
The minister will be attending a meeting of the council of EU agriculture ministers. Concurrently, a ‘trilogue’ will be taking place between the council, the European Commission and the European Parliament on CAP reform.
The minister said today: “The trilogues have been challenging. The council favours a position of broad flexibility for member states, and I fully support this approach. It is important to be able to take account of the very different farm structures across Europe.”
However, he highlighted the different approach being sought by the European Parliament, an approach he described as “more prescriptive”.
Speaking in answer to a question from Fine Gael Senator Garrett Ahearn, Minister McConalogue outlined the key issues that would be raised at the council meeting and the trilogue.
“There is an increase in environmental ambition with the introduction of eco-schemes in Pillar I, with enhanced conditionality standards and a number of targets for spending directed towards environmental actions,” he said.
“I believe farmers more than anybody understand the impacts of climate change and are willing to engage in this topic. Farmers have always been adapters and adopters in this regard. We can see this in the keen interest shown in the recent REAP pilot.”
This aspect of the reform will include the new eco-schemes, which will see a certain percentage of Pillar I payments being ring-fenced. The exact percentage (likely somewhere between 20% and 30% of the direct payments envelope) will be one of the main taking points over the coming days.
Minister McConalogue also highlighted the payment redistribution aspect of the reform, and the varying views that exist on the topic. He stated that he was in favour of capping overall farm payments.
The third main strand to be discussed is the move to a results-based approach to payments and away from the compliance-based approach, something the minister also supports.
Ireland, along with all other member states, are due to submit CAP national ‘Strategic Plans’ to the commission by January 2022. Minister McConalogue said that it would be necessary to reach agreement soon, and that the council of agriculture ministers aims to reach a conclusion this week on a way forward.