Ireland’s outgoing European Commissioner Mairead McGuinness has said there is a tough road ahead for those seeking more funding for farmers to support their efforts to improve the environment.

Commissioner McGuinness explained that creating new funding streams for farmers or growing the CAP budget would require member states to send more of their tax euros to Brussels to feed a bigger EU budget.

The comments came after European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen signalled that Brussels will outline its plans for the “future vision” of EU agriculture within the first 100 days of the new Commission’s mandate.

The Commission’s roadmap will consider the recommendations of the report that emerged from a strategic dialogue on farming and which called for two new funding streams to back farmers’ green ambitions, both separate from CAP.

These were an EU agri-food Just Transition fund for one-off grants or lending and a “well-resourced” nature restoration fund for biodiversity.

Debate needed

McGuinness said: “This report talks about getting another budget that comes to help in that transition. Then the conversation, which didn’t happen during the European Parliament elections, is needed - will member states contribute more to the EU budget?

“What will be the impacts of enlargement on the EU budget and what role does Ireland see itself playing in that?

“Because you can’t say you are for more money for farmers in CAP and the just transition if, as a net payer [into the EU budget], you are not willing to contribute to it," she said at the Agricultural Science Association (ASA) conference on Thursday.

Commissioner McGuinness gave von der Leyen credit for calling farming and environmental stakeholders together to compile the report, saying it showed “leadership where there was chaos”.

She stated that the EU needs “much more policy co-ordination going forward” and recognised that when it came to new regulations, there “probably was too much put forward and it really made farmers nervous of what was ahead”.

The new EU report also flagged challenges with society’s expectations of farmers, which the outgoing Commission suggested represents both cheap food but more work on the environment.

“I make the point that there is a very romantic view of farming in those who have never farmed and those who can reasonably afford [food],” she continued.

“For example, organic, because they like to think of it as more intimate and local and not to be using inputs.

“The reality is that farming, as someone who is old enough to have hand-picked potatoes, is much more difficult than the perception.”

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