An Irish MEP has questioned if a proposal to simplify the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is designed to manipulate the farming vote ahead of the European elections.
The European Parliament voted yesterday (Wednesday, April 24) to approve a review of the CAP as proposed by the EU Commission to cut red tape for farmers.
The “targeted review”, which must now be approved by the EU Council, covers several Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAEC) standards to ease the administrative burden for EU farmers.
425 MEPs voted in favour of the CAP Strategic Plans Regulation and the CAP Horizontal Regulation, with 130 against, and 33 abstentions.
CAP
Independent Irish MEP Luke Ming Flanagan was among those who abstained in the final vote.
“We cannot ignore the context and timing of this he said, we are on the run in to an election, this proposal is designed to manipulate the farming vote, rather than the real market reforms that are needed to allow farmers to make a decent living from their work,” he said.
The MEP said the proposal to exempt farmers from inspection may sound good but warned that “the devil is in the detail”.
“If 65% of the farmers across the EU are exempted from inspections then it follows the remaining 35% will face a higher possibility of inspection to meet the 1% control threshold required in the regulation.
“Farmers are already under a huge amount of pressure related to adverse weather, cost of inputs and price pressure from retailers.
“We cannot add more uncertainty to their lives with the possibility of more inspection and then try to dress it up as something positive,” Flanagan said.
The MEP, who is part of a group in the parliament that unsuccessfully tabled several amendments, said that the proposal was “tinkering around the edges” when “real reform” of the CAP is required.
He added that the EU should not be allowed to walk away from its responsibilities to undertake market reform which would allow those that produce food to make a decent income.
Bureaucracy
Fine Gael MEP Colm Markey welcomed the outcome of the vote saying that Irish farmers will face less bureaucracy.
The Midlands-North-West MEP, who sits on the EU Committee on Agriculture, believes the result is a win for farmers.
“We have listened to farmers concerns over recent months and responded by relaxing the CAP rules, reducing unnecessary bureaucratic burdens and offering more flexibilities to member states.
“The EPP Group recognised the huge challenges farmers are currently facing due to a number of factors, including the war in Ukraine, and responded with these targeted adjustments,” he said.
“Despite attempts by the Greens and the Left to torpedo this vote, I was delighted that a majority of 420 MEPs had the common sense to vote in favour.
“While it’s disappointing that these measures did not have the support of all Irish MEPs, it was crucial that we got it over the line before Parliamentary business wraps up before the EU elections in June,” Markey added.
Incomes
Meanwhile, the organic food and farming movement has said that simplifying certain CAP rules fails to address unfair pricing and poor incomes which has led to farmer protests in recent months.
Jan Plagge, IFOAM Organics Europe president, said that it was “a step backwards for Europe’s food and farming sector”.
“This ‘simplification’ is a missed opportunity and lowers the CAP’s environmental requirements without providing a comparative advantage to farmers who want to invest in ambitious sustainable farming systems, like organic and other agroecological practices.
“The proposal fails to address the real issues of low prices linked to power imbalances and will ultimately undermine the EU’s environmental ambitions and the CAP’s legitimacy,” he said.
Plagge said that the vote in the parliament will “drive member states in an environmental race to the bottom and encourages farmers’ to lower their engagements to public goods”.
“Farmers, especially those engaged in sustainable production methods, such as organic farming, should be fairly remunerated by both the market and the CAP,” he added.