Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has described convergence as “an unstoppable train”.
Reacting to the MEPs’ vote in support of moving towards a flat-rate BPS and 100% convergence, Minister Creed told the Irish Farmers Journal there was demand from other member states for convergence on payments between countries, but warned about how internal convergence in Ireland would affect Irish farmers.
“I’ve always said that this is, in a way, an unstoppable train and it’s a question of how quickly we get there, how quickly we can bring up those who have below-average levels of payments,” he said.
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“It needs to be a planned journey and it needs to ensure that there are no unintended consequences. The last time around we did have casualties; people who had low overall payments found their payments were reduced further and that’s a situation I’m anxious to avoid.”
He said he thought it was likely that timelines would slip and it was unlikely that the current parliament will be negotiating with the Commission and Council of Ministers about CAP. With European elections in May, the new parliament could revise this stance.
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Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has described convergence as “an unstoppable train”.
Reacting to the MEPs’ vote in support of moving towards a flat-rate BPS and 100% convergence, Minister Creed told the Irish Farmers Journal there was demand from other member states for convergence on payments between countries, but warned about how internal convergence in Ireland would affect Irish farmers.
“I’ve always said that this is, in a way, an unstoppable train and it’s a question of how quickly we get there, how quickly we can bring up those who have below-average levels of payments,” he said.
“It needs to be a planned journey and it needs to ensure that there are no unintended consequences. The last time around we did have casualties; people who had low overall payments found their payments were reduced further and that’s a situation I’m anxious to avoid.”
He said he thought it was likely that timelines would slip and it was unlikely that the current parliament will be negotiating with the Commission and Council of Ministers about CAP. With European elections in May, the new parliament could revise this stance.
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