An Irish MEP has said that improving fairness in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payment system will increase public support for the European Union’s farming budget.
Luke Ming Flanagan was speaking during a special hearing of the European Parliament Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) marking 60 years of CAP today (Tuesday, November 8).
The Midlands North-West MEP said that although it is not without its problems CAP funding has played a significant role in Ireland.
“Where I come from it’s massively important money for rural areas. It’s €1.6 billion a year for Ireland and it doesn’t just end up in the pockets of farmers.
“I’m not a farmer’s son. I’ve never worked or lived on a farm but my father was a carpenter. The carpenters, the mechanics, the hairdressers in my town are there because of Common Agricultural Policy money. It’s a damn good thing.
“It meant my family didn’t have to emigrate to London again. That’s what it meant.”
However, Flanagan noted that the CAP budget is reducing while requirements on farmers are increasing.
The share of the EU budget accounted for by agricultural spending has been steadily declining in recent years.
The CAP represented 66% of the EU budget in the early 1980s, that fell to 37.8% in the 2014-2020 period, while it dropped to 31% for the 2021-2027 period.
“One the reasons I would say why the overall percentage of the European budget for agriculture has gone down is because the general public see an unfair payment system and have seen it for a long time.
“The more we make that fair, the more support it will get,” Flanagan said.
“We need to see an end to big business getting massive amounts of tax payers’ money when small farmers are only getting a pittance,” he said.
On future CAP reforms, the Irish MEP said that minimums on Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS) must increase, convergence must be completed and there should be higher minimums on eco-schemes.
Meanwhile, the EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Janusz Wojciechowski told MEPs that a stronger CAP will be needed beyond 2027.
“We know what’s going to happen up to 2027 but there is a post-2027 as well. We need a stronger CAP beyond 2027 because 0.4% GDP spent on food security is too little.
“That’s not going to give us food security in the face of the challenges we’re currently dealing with, that farmers are currently grappling with,” he said.