Member states could set area-based farm income supports in the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as low as €90/ha in the 2028-2034 period under an Ireland-drafted compromise of member states’ position on the next EU budget.

The proposed compromise text on member states’ collective position on the next EU budget was published last weekend by the Irish presidency of the Council of the European Unionand it said that area-based income supports should average between €90/ha and €240/ha for each country.

The European Commission’s original CAP proposals had stated that the lower threshold for average payment rates should not fall below €130/ha in the next CAP’s area-based income support scheme.

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A new area-based payment is proposed to combine Basic Income Support for Sustainability Scheme (BISS), the Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS) and the Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (CISYF) from 2028 onwards.

The scheme would abolish entitlements and set a new nationwide payment rate, with young farmers and perhaps other groups deemed to be in need of additional support receiving a per hectare top up above this baseline.

Redistribution

In addition to abolishing entitlements and fully flattening payment rates per hectare, the CAP proposals would also put the larger CAP payments through a redistribution process Brussels termed ‘capping and degressivity’ in a bid to curb the difference between the largest and smallest beneficiaries of funding.

The Commission had said that a €100,000 outright limit would apply to farm payments, with income supports of more than €20,000 having to undergo ‘degressivity’ – meaning some level of a clawback.

As these clawbacks were initially proposed, any amounts that had been due between €20,000 and €50,000 would be cut by one quarter; any income supports between €50,000 and €75,000 would be cut by half; and funds that would be in the €75,000 to €100,000 range would be cut by three-quarters.

However, the newly proposed member states’ comprise would reverse many of the Commission’s plans for farm payment redistribution as it states that these clawbacks should only kick in at €100,000.

This would mean redistribution would only apply to farms above 1,000ac in size at the very smallest, whereas the equivalent farm size under the Commission’s plans had been a farm of just over 200ac.

The weekend Irish presidency document said that 15% of area-based farm income supports between €100,000 and €150,000 should face a 15% clawback in the new post-2028 BISS-style scheme, rising to a 25% reduction for payments between €125,000 and €150,000 and hitting a 50% reduction for amounts over the €150,000 threshold.

The Irish compromise sets a voluntary cap of €300,000 on the total farm income supports an individual farm could receive over any one year.

The new proposals also said that young farmer top-ups should be excluded the from capping and degressivity process.