The latest proposal from the European Council on the next CAP budget “does not go far enough”, An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

Under the proposals, the CAP budget will represent 30% of the total budget, the lowest ever share for agriculture. It would have a budget of €329bn, €79bn less than what the Commission proposed in 2018.

Farm payments could be cut by an average of €2,000 in the next CAP, Irish Farmers Journal analysis shows.

An Taoiseach said he raised the CAP budget issue with President Michel when he met with him in Brussels at a special meeting of the European Council held in Brussels on Thursday 20 and Friday 21 February.

Position

“In this meeting, I set out Ireland’s well-established position on the need to protect the CAP as an important, long-standing and well-functioning policy, and of vital assistance to our rural communities and farming families.

“I also set out the many challenges facing our farming sector – including Brexit and pressures in the beef sector – and expressed my strong view that we cannot ask farmers to do more for climate, sustainability, and food security with substantially less funding.

“I was unambiguous that this position has widespread support in Ireland,” he told the Dáil on Thursday.

Funding gap

For his part, President Michel has on many occasions expressed the view that as a result of the departure of the UK, a net contributor, from the EU there is a gap in funding that needs to be filled, he said.

“As a result, member states can expect to be contributing more while receiving less. Reaching agreement on such a proposition was always going to be a very difficult task and so it proved.

Member states can expect to be contributing more while receiving less

“Those who pay most into the budget have concerns about the size of the budget, with others sharing our concerns about possible funding cuts to priority programmes.

“Due to strong economic growth, our annual contributions have grown significantly in recent years, and the Department of Finance estimates that our gross annual contribution will increase further in the years ahead,” he said.

He added that it is important that the overall EU budget, the Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) is appropriately funded to meet the challenges faced by the European Union.

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