The enormity of the European Commission’s plans to gut the ringfenced funding available to support farm incomes beyond 2027 was laid bare before the joint Oireachtas committee on agriculture on Wednesday.
Brussels’ proposals to abolish the two-pillared CAP structure and merge CAP funding into a larger funding pot responsible for financing programmes outside of agriculture could have “significant implications” on Ireland’s ability to support farmers if they come to pass, TDs and senators were told.
Department of Agriculture assistant secretary general Paul Savage said to the committee that the revamp tabled this summer is so radical that “detailed analysis” is still ongoing to assess exactly how much Irish farmers’ overall payment allocation would be reduced from current funding levels.
Savage also warned that wrapping CAP schemes into the Commission’s proposed single framework setting out funding plans for policies not related to agriculture risks new levels of complication to the Department’s efforts to get scheme payments out to farmers.
Shared concern
The high-level Department official stressed too that many questions remain with what exactly Brussels' master plan to overhaul the next EU budget and farm payment scheme’s slice of it will mean in practice, but he agreed that the funding cut looks to be in the ballpark of upwards of €320m per year.
Savage summarised the general reaction of other EU countries to the plans as one of concern.
“At this point when the member states have given their views on the proposals, it is clear they all have concerns around the structure that is proposed and the vast majority have concerns,” he told the Oireachtas committee.
“There is a range of questions people have in terms of how this might work in practice and, I think, from our point of view, we are co-ordinating with other member states.
“That engagement has shown the fact that there is a lot of common reaction among member states as to what has been proposed.”
Scope to lessen the cut
Although confusion remains as to exactly how the Commission wants its €2tn budget for 2028 to 2034 divvied out between different policy areas, Savage confirmed that agriculture’s ringfenced slice remains at just €296bn across all EU countries, down around “20% to 24%” on the current CAP.
But he also stated that further “difficult and complicated” negotiations are to come, as well as the possibility to draw from the wider single fund proposed could bolster farmers’ share of the EU budget beyond the over €300m per year gap Ireland is faces into.
“There is the scope to add further funding to the CAP from that wider NRPP [single fund] allocation,” Savage explained.
“At this point, it is not a done deal that it is a 20% cut overall of CAP and that certain people or certain sectors will be sacrificed – this is purely a proposal at the moment in terms of how the Commission proposes to fund this.”
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The enormity of the European Commission’s plans to gut the ringfenced funding available to support farm incomes beyond 2027 was laid bare before the joint Oireachtas committee on agriculture on Wednesday.
Brussels’ proposals to abolish the two-pillared CAP structure and merge CAP funding into a larger funding pot responsible for financing programmes outside of agriculture could have “significant implications” on Ireland’s ability to support farmers if they come to pass, TDs and senators were told.
Department of Agriculture assistant secretary general Paul Savage said to the committee that the revamp tabled this summer is so radical that “detailed analysis” is still ongoing to assess exactly how much Irish farmers’ overall payment allocation would be reduced from current funding levels.
Savage also warned that wrapping CAP schemes into the Commission’s proposed single framework setting out funding plans for policies not related to agriculture risks new levels of complication to the Department’s efforts to get scheme payments out to farmers.
Shared concern
The high-level Department official stressed too that many questions remain with what exactly Brussels' master plan to overhaul the next EU budget and farm payment scheme’s slice of it will mean in practice, but he agreed that the funding cut looks to be in the ballpark of upwards of €320m per year.
Savage summarised the general reaction of other EU countries to the plans as one of concern.
“At this point when the member states have given their views on the proposals, it is clear they all have concerns around the structure that is proposed and the vast majority have concerns,” he told the Oireachtas committee.
“There is a range of questions people have in terms of how this might work in practice and, I think, from our point of view, we are co-ordinating with other member states.
“That engagement has shown the fact that there is a lot of common reaction among member states as to what has been proposed.”
Scope to lessen the cut
Although confusion remains as to exactly how the Commission wants its €2tn budget for 2028 to 2034 divvied out between different policy areas, Savage confirmed that agriculture’s ringfenced slice remains at just €296bn across all EU countries, down around “20% to 24%” on the current CAP.
But he also stated that further “difficult and complicated” negotiations are to come, as well as the possibility to draw from the wider single fund proposed could bolster farmers’ share of the EU budget beyond the over €300m per year gap Ireland is faces into.
“There is the scope to add further funding to the CAP from that wider NRPP [single fund] allocation,” Savage explained.
“At this point, it is not a done deal that it is a 20% cut overall of CAP and that certain people or certain sectors will be sacrificed – this is purely a proposal at the moment in terms of how the Commission proposes to fund this.”
Read more
Commission tries to spin CAP cuts as a farming win
Watch: Minister confident CAP can be saved from Commission's cuts
Commission wants to double young farmer numbers
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