It will be up to member states to identify areas of land that can be made eligible for payments based on their contribution to biodiversity, a senior official in the European Commission has said.

The European Commission's Directorate-General (DG) for Agriculture and Rural Development Wolfgang Burtscher told the Irish Farmers Journal that there would be a variety of ways to encourage farmers to enhance biodiversity.

He was responding to a question posed by Pádraic Fogarty, who asked if the next CAP will allow for payments on land traditionally deemed ineligible.

Land eligibility rules have long faced criticism that farmers lose direct payments on areas deemed as scrub or non-productive but are encouraged under rural development schemes.

Eligibility

DG Burtscher said: “We have instruments that permit remunerating farmers for contributing to biodiversity and I think it's really up to the member states to identify those schemes and those landscape features they think are worthwhile to be eligible under these different instruments.”

Under the first pillar, farmers will be able to claim payments for eco schemes, while under the second pillar they will have access to agri-environmental schemes.

The next CAP seeks to integrate actions under both pillars through national strategic plans.

These plans will play a central role in the next CAP and will be designed at member state level and signed off on by the European Commission.

Budget

There is still some debate as to whether the proposed budget to implement measures under these plans is an increase or decrease on the previous CAP.

Burtscher said based on current 2020 prices, the budget represents a 2% increase. However, farm organisations have argued that when the previous budget is compared on constant 2018 prices, it is actually a 9% cut.

“Why we opted for the current prices, and the baseline 2020, is the following: farmers know what they receive in 2020, in terms of direct payments, in terms of compensation payments under the second pillar and that is our starting point.”

“I think salaries are paid in current prices and subsidies are paid in current prices and this is why we rely for communication purposes on current prices.”

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Possibility of payments on scrubland in next CAP

Land eligibility rules have long faced the criticism that farmers lose direct payments on areas deemed non-productive but encouraged under rural development schemes.