The marathon EU heads of state summit ended in Brussels last night with no deal on a budget for the next seven years (2021-2027).

After 30 hours of negotiation, European Council President Charles Michel couldn’t reconcile the differences between countries that wanted to reduce the budget to 1% of gross national income (GNI) on one side and those that wanted to increase EU engagement in defence and migration on the other.

Modest increase

For farmers, the key point to note is that there was a modestly increased offer of €4.4bn for the CAP budget, with €2bn for Pillar 1 direct payments and €2.4bn for Pillar 2 schemes and rural development.

This would bring the total CAP budget up to €333bn, still nowhere near the €383bn CAP budget of the current budget cycle.

March meeting

There had been speculation that another special summit would be convened on 6 March to try and close the deal. However, the gap seems wide with the Taoiseach saying on Friday that he couldn’t accept a budget with an increased Irish contribution and a reduced CAP, which is the core return that Ireland gets from the EU.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal as he was leaving Brussels on Saturday morning, IFA president Tim Cullinan said a no-deal scenario was far better than approval of the bad proposal on offer. However, he said there was a massive battle ahead for Irish and EU farmers as it was clear that some countries were happy proceed with the proposal for savage CAP cuts.

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All talk, no deal in Brussels