A joint memorandum has been signed by a number of European ministers and secretaries for agriculture in Madrid on 31 May, requesting that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) budget should not be cut.

At the beginning of May, the EU Budget Commissioner Gunther Oettinger proposed cuts of approximately 5% to CAP funding in the next EU budget.

Farmers cannot be asked to do more and more for less and less

Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed addressed a conference in Spain today with his counterparts and insisted that despite the resulting loss of EU income from the Brexit fallout, CAP funding should not be hit.

“The advantage of an increasingly globalised market place brings with it volatility and competitiveness challenges, and farm families in many sectors are struggling to make ends meet.

"Therefore farmers cannot be asked to do more and more for less and less,” Creed stated after the meeting.

In total, six countries signed the memorandum, including the Ministers for Agriculture from Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal and the State Secretaries from Finland and Greece.

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