Acting Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will be arguing that Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funding “should be maintained at least at its existing level” at an upcoming European Council meeting later this week.

Speaking in advance of this week’s EU Council meeting on the European Budget, the Taoiseach has repeated his commitment to fight to retain the current level of CAP funding.

“We face a real battle as many other countries want to reduce the budget for CAP and divert it to other areas.

I will be arguing in Brussels that CAP funding should be maintained at least at its existing level.

The Taoiseach’s comments in the wake of the news that the CAP budget for 2021-2027 could be in line for a drastic cut down to a total of €329.3 billion.

Based on proposals from the President of the European Council Charles Michel, this would represent a CAP cut of over €53.2 billion or 14% on the current 2014-2020 CAP budget – adjusted for the EU-27 (minus the UK) – worth €382.5 billion.

Also Read: Inside EU budget documents: Proposal to slash CAP by between 14% and 19%

The same document indicates that the 2014-2020 CAP budget – adjusted for the EU-28 (including the UK) – was €410.3 billion.

Using this as the existing, the new proposal would see a drop of over €81 billion or 19% if enacted.