EU considers front-loading grants

THE front-loading of EU grants may be considered by the Commission to ensure that proposed direct payment caps are enforceable.

EU Agriculture Commissioner, Phil Hogan, indicated last week that direct payments to individual farmers should be limited to €60,000-€100,000 per farm as part of the next CAP reform in 2020.

Commissioner Hogan accepted that large operations which receive sizeable CAP payments would simply subdivide their holdings and make multiple applications for EU supports to get around such measures.

“In that scenario we have to rely more upon ‘degressive payments’ which give more aid to a first tranche of land and then taper off as holding sizes increase,” he explained.

Commissioner Hogan accepted that 80pc of CAP payments go to 20pc of farmers, but pointed out that 20pc of the farmers farmed 80pc of the EU’s eligible land.

However, he maintained that “degressivity” and other schemes targeting farmers with small or medium-sized holdings would address the payments imbalance. Front loading CAP payments would inevitably provoke strong opposition from farmers with sizeable entitlements. It would also pose real problems for the Irish farm organisations, where proposals to level and redistribute CAP payments proved hugely contentious during the Ciolos reforms.

Commissioner Hogan’s document, ‘The Future of Food and Farming’, set out the priorities for the CAP regime from 2020, and will act as a guide for the upcoming discussions and negotiations.

He identified CAP funding as a major challenge for the EU’s farm policy in the post-Brexit era.

“We need sustained funding to renew farming in Europe; to ensure future food security, bring in young farmers, and above all to meet our international environmental obligations, including tackling climate change,” Commissioner Hogan said.