The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has called on the Department of Agriculture to maximise all relevant measures within the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) simplification package launched by the European Commission.
The IFA has pushed for certain proposals to be fully secured to reduce some of the hardship and complexity for farmers.
These measures related to inspections, derogations, supports for young farmers; extending financial supports to support regulatory compliance, investment, working capital, and to mitigate adverse climatic events or other catastrophic events such as animal health diseases or plant pests.
IFA president Francie Gorman said farmers need policies that are coherent, consistent, meaningful, and implementable.
Second correction
“What also can’t be lost here is that this is now the second corrective package on the CAP within a single year. This fact should serve as a lesson for the future and shape our discussions,” he said.
“Future simplification efforts must not undermine the common nature of the CAP or open the door to uncontrolled renationalisation. That would would mark the end of CAP as we know it, both in terms of its dedicated budget and two-pillar approach, targeting income support (Pillar 1) and rural development (Pillar 2) measures.”
GAEC 2
In addition, the IFA has reiterated its stance that GAEC-2 (protection of peatland and wetland) should be removed from conditionality.
The association has urged policymakers to move to an incentivised approach with greater credit afforded to existing on-farm action, national and EU legislation and agri-environment scheme requirements.
“Within the simplification proposals, while the GAEC standard remains, opportunity/flexibility is now provided to member states to satisfy GAEC-2 requirements,” Gorman said.
“This will be without the need for additional practices for farmers, and for an incentivised approach, by removing baseline requirements from eco-schemes/agri-environmental schemes, to compensate beneficiaries for any cost/lost productivity associated with its compliance.
“It is imperative that DAFM continue to push for GAEC-2 to be removed. In addition, they should swiftly introduce a dedicated eco-scheme/agri-climate intervention to compensate farmers for the costs incurred and income foregone in relation to implementing (some or all) the GAEC 2 requirements, and investigate if same can be replicated for those on designated lands given false promises of the past.”
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The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has called on the Department of Agriculture to maximise all relevant measures within the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) simplification package launched by the European Commission.
The IFA has pushed for certain proposals to be fully secured to reduce some of the hardship and complexity for farmers.
These measures related to inspections, derogations, supports for young farmers; extending financial supports to support regulatory compliance, investment, working capital, and to mitigate adverse climatic events or other catastrophic events such as animal health diseases or plant pests.
IFA president Francie Gorman said farmers need policies that are coherent, consistent, meaningful, and implementable.
Second correction
“What also can’t be lost here is that this is now the second corrective package on the CAP within a single year. This fact should serve as a lesson for the future and shape our discussions,” he said.
“Future simplification efforts must not undermine the common nature of the CAP or open the door to uncontrolled renationalisation. That would would mark the end of CAP as we know it, both in terms of its dedicated budget and two-pillar approach, targeting income support (Pillar 1) and rural development (Pillar 2) measures.”
GAEC 2
In addition, the IFA has reiterated its stance that GAEC-2 (protection of peatland and wetland) should be removed from conditionality.
The association has urged policymakers to move to an incentivised approach with greater credit afforded to existing on-farm action, national and EU legislation and agri-environment scheme requirements.
“Within the simplification proposals, while the GAEC standard remains, opportunity/flexibility is now provided to member states to satisfy GAEC-2 requirements,” Gorman said.
“This will be without the need for additional practices for farmers, and for an incentivised approach, by removing baseline requirements from eco-schemes/agri-environmental schemes, to compensate beneficiaries for any cost/lost productivity associated with its compliance.
“It is imperative that DAFM continue to push for GAEC-2 to be removed. In addition, they should swiftly introduce a dedicated eco-scheme/agri-climate intervention to compensate farmers for the costs incurred and income foregone in relation to implementing (some or all) the GAEC 2 requirements, and investigate if same can be replicated for those on designated lands given false promises of the past.”
Read more
EU farming losses from adverse weather hit €28bn a year
European farmers march on Brussels over CAP budget
Hands off CAP budget, Doyle tells Commission
Opinion: CAP funding battle goes to heart of European project
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