The news from the EU heads of state that agreement has been finally secured on the €1.8tn EU budget and recovery fund clears the way for CAP finalisation.

It also means that the money from the €7.5bn recovery fund for rural development that was to be front-loaded into the CAP transition period over the next two years can be resurrected.

Irish share

The Irish share of this fund is €194m and it was intended that 30% of this would be released in 2021, with the remaining 70% distributed in 2022.

This had been put in jeopardy, as Hungary and Poland had threatened to veto the recovery fund budget because of conditions it was attaching to member states in relation to compliance with the rule of law.

Now that they have relented and multi-annual financial framework, which is the normal EU budget plus the one-off pandemic-related recovery fund is approved, the money will be in place to deliver Ireland’s €194m share of the €7.5bn allocated in the recovery fund.