Today’s agriculture and fisheries council meeting in Luxembourg dedicated a session to the progression of the Commission's CAP proposals.

They passed through the Parliament’s agriculture committee with proposed amendments over the past two weeks, although they are stalled now in Parliament until after the elections.

It is the ambition of the Romanian presidency to have a policy position established by its conclusion at the end of June.

While the debate in Ireland is focused on the move towards flattening of payments and what will be a genuine farmer, environment issues and payments were central to the council discussion.

Environment

In a media briefing afterwards, Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan reiterated his proposal's environmental focus and recognised that it was also the ambition of the Romanian presidency.

Using his familiar comment about farmers being part of the solution to environmental issues rather than being the problem as often identified, he expressed a hope that a council position would be in place by the end of June ahead of budget discussions in the autumn.

He said: “If we want to seek more funding later this year for the common agricultural policy (CAP), we need to have a policy position [in place] that we can advocate very strongly and I think that the environment agenda that has been discussed by the Romanian presidency today provides a wonderful backdrop towards these budget discussions in terms of how farmers can be at the centre of solutions to these issues rather than as they are regularly accused of being the problem.”

Brexit support

The Commissioner was asked if the Commission would use the resources identified to support farmers in the event of a no-deal Brexit to assist farmers such as beef producers in Ireland that had already taken a hit because of Brexit.

He answered that several member states had raised market issues across different sectors and that the Commission would require evidence-based applications.