The president of COPA, the European farmers body, flew into Dublin on Wednesday to meet with Taoiseach Micheál Martin on the next CAP budget.
Massimiliano Giansanti and IFA president Francie Gorman told the Taoiseach that EU farmers need €500bn to build on-farm resilience, to encourage young people into the sector, to ensure food security and to enhance the sustainability of a very fragile sector from 2028.
The European Council, made up of Prime Ministers across the EU27, will meet in Dublin next week. That meeting will be chaired by the Taoiseach.
Gorman said the current proposal is to allocate €293bn to the EU CAP budget.
“Wherever you farm across the EU, the message is the same: the CAP budget must be resolved. As things stand, Ireland stands to lose over €2.5bn from our CAP budget, which would mean a cut of 24%,” he said.
Global uncertainty
“At a time when global uncertainty is playing havoc with our costs, any cut to funding would be a devastating outcome for farmers, for food security, for the environment and for rural communities.
“Irrespective of the other pressures that exist in framing the next overall EU budget (known as the MFF), food security has to remain front and centre,” Gorman said, adding that tangible proposals were put on the table at the meeting.
IFA signed the CAP Stockholm Declaration in Sweden last month along with other farm leaders from across the EU27.
It calls for a CAP budget maintained at least at its current level and adjusted for inflation, with genuinely ring-fenced funding. The CAP must remain a truly ‘common’ policy, with its own dedicated and protected budget, if Europe is serious about safeguarding its farming sector and its single market, the farm organisation said.
