The current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023-2027 is “unrecognisable from what it was in its hey day”, Fianna Fáil TD for Cork north-west, Michael Moynihan has said.
In CAP negotiations, he said, it must be “recalled” that the policy was introduced to support productivity, secure a “decent living” for farmers, and ensure a stable supply of food.
The EU Council of agriculture ministers has already begun “negotiations” on the new policy, CAP 2028-2032, according to Deputy Moynihan.
Amid recent farmer protests across Europe against “excessive regulation”, the negotiations are an “opportunity” to “improve” the CAP and ensure that it “works for farmers”, he said.
“There is no denying that the CAP has played an essential role in the European agricultural sector since its inception back in 1962.
“Without the CAP, post-World War II Europe, which was struggling with low rates of food production, low income and low standards of living, would have starved,” he said.
The CAP increased agricultural productivity, ensured a “fair standard of living” for farmers, stabilised markets, and established a secure supply chain with reasonable prices”, he said.
When Ireland joined the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973, the CAP provided means to diversify Ireland’s export market and increase productivity and farm incomes, he said.
“However, the current CAP is unrecognisable from what it was in its heyday. The policy is now overburdened by red tape and constant policy changes,” Deputy Moynihan added.
CAP
While the proposals by the European Commission to reduce administrative burden are “welcome”, he said short-term measures “can only go so far in addressing the concerns of farmers”.
Environmental obligations for farmers were encompassed into the CAP during the MacSharry reforms in 1992, he said, “meaning that they have been in place for over 30 years”.
The “success” of each environmental obligation over the last three decades should be measured to “ascertain what has worked best and then incorporate these into future policies”, he said.
The five-year CAP cycle provides “no long-term outlook”, especially for young farmers and derogation farmers who are “seeking reassurance that they can continue farming”, he said.
CAP policies should be in place for at least 15 years, Deputy Moynihan said, “otherwise, this precarity and the stress which stems from it will push farmers off the land”.
He said the EU needs to investigate the level of food production needed in future, and ensure that the CAP supports famers to achieve this level and rewards them for doing so.
In addition, he said, a long-term plan is needed to assist Ukraine, which was the “breadbasket of Europe prior to Russia’s invasion, in rebuilding its capacity as a prominent exporter.
A higher budget is needed to reform the CAP, he said and added that the EU “must commit to a sustainable increase in funding, guaranteed for the coming decades”.
Policy makers at EU and national level need to “proactively engage” with food producers, he said and added that public representatives “cannot lose sight of the bread-and-butter issues”.