Irish farmers got a boost of €18 million in Single Farm Payment this year, with news that the overall cut on payments by the EU was reduced by 1.55%. The good news came after the EU council finalised their budgets for 2014 (2013 payments). They agreed a cut of 2.45% under financial discipline rather that the rate of 4% previously suggested.

It still means that €29 million is being taken from Ireland’s direct payment budget, which includes money for the new agricultural crisis reserve fund, set up under CAP reform. This crisis reserve accounts for €12 million of the cuts.

The move came after the updated figures found that €902 million in savings was needed, compared to the €1,471 million initially mooted. Ironically, some of the savings were due to the recouping of fines from other countries.

The impact of the lower threshold on farmers is shown in Table 1. While the savings on a €5,000 SFP of €47 is small, it is over €1,000 when the single farm payment is as high as €70,000. This new proposal will be put to the Council to be agreed by 1 December. Separately, the European Parliament finally voted through the EU’s Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) for the years 2014 to 2020. After two and a half years of intense negotiations, it clears the way for the final approval by the Council in the coming weeks.

CAP was a winner, taking 38% of the overall MFF, slightly more than last time around. Looking back, however, the overall CAP made up around 70% of the total EU budget in 1984.

The CAP budget is set at €312.7bn billion, or 29% for market-related expenditure and direct aids (pillar 1), and €95.6 billion or 9% for rural development (pillar 2).

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Agricultural products represented a 7% share of in EU exports in 2011 with a value of more than €100bn.