Irish MEP Barry Cowen has welcomed an ultimatum from an influential group of his fellow MEPs to pull its support for a key aspect of the next EU long-term budget unless the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is guaranteed higher funding commitments.

Under plans for the next EU budget, CAP will be lumped in with several other funding commitments at member state level in what are to be known as National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPPs).

Within these plans, the agri-sector will have to compete with other priorities for funding.

However, some MEPs on the European Parliament's agriculture committee have threatened to pull their support for these NRPPs if CAP is not allocated a higher budget.

The current proposals for CAP 2028-2034 will see the farming budget slashed by around 24% compared to the current CAP, to only about €293 billion for the seven years.

The European People's Party (EPP) Working Group on the parliament's agriculture committee has said that it will withdraw support for the NRPPs if demands for a higher CAP funding are not met.

Its leading MEP, Norbert Lins, said that his group only accepted the introduction of the NRPPs on the basis that there would be "clear safeguards" for agriculture and rural budget.

However, according to Lins, neither member states nor the European Commission have outlined any pathway to boost the current level of proposed funding for the CAP.

"An option to mobilise funding is not the same as a guaranteed allocation to the CAP," Lins said.

The German MEP added: "We therefore no longer consider ourselves bound by last year's acceptance of the proposed [NRPP] architecture."

Although Cowen is not a member of the EPP group (Fianna Fáil is a member of the Renew Group), he nonetheless welcomed the intervention from the EPP, saying it is a significant development in negotiations on the EU budget.

According to Cowen, the views of the EPP are consistent with his own proposal to boost the CAP budget by over €90 billion, by ringfencing and fast-tracking other sources of funding so they can be paid to the agri-sector.

Cowen said that his proposals for increasing the amount available to CAP are seeing "growing political momentum".

"The EPP has recognised what I have been saying all along: the possibility of accessing funding is not the same as a guaranteed allocation. Farmers cannot plan their futures around funding that may or may not materialise," he said.

"The commission's proposals offer too little certainty for farmers. We have identified a credible, practical route to restoring the CAP budget, using funding already provided for within the wider EU budget framework," the Midlands North-West MEP added.

According to Cowen's figures, Ireland is due to receive a funding pot of €11.7 billion under the NRPP, of which €8.2 billion would be ringfenced for agriculture.

If his proposals for the CAP budget got traction with member states and the European Commission and were then put into the final budget agreement, Ireland's ringfenced CAP funding could rise from €8.2 billion to €10.8 billion.

"That is the difference between political promises and money in farmers' pockets. For Ireland, getting this right could mean an additional €2.6 billion for our farmers and rural communities over the next seven-year budget," he said.

"If these funds are left within the wider partnership plans, Ireland stands to receive substantially less. That is precisely why I have insisted that this money must be guaranteed within the CAP itself," Cowen added.