International backing for CAP to be maintained in face of cuts

IRELAND has secured backing in its call for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to be maintained in the face of planned cuts to the budget.

A meeting in Madrid was attended by representatives from Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Finland and Greece, all of whom signed a joint memorandum on the issue. The European Commission has already proposed to cut funding of the CAP by 5pc (€17bn) in a move which has been met with condemnation by farm organisations.

A decrease of this magnitude to the Irish CAP envelope of €1.5bn equates to around €75m.

Agriculture Minister Michael Creed warned that the CAP budget must be protected to preserve the family farm model.

He said: “The Common Agricultural Policy is the most successful policy of the European project and we have emerged from this meeting with a strong coalition of member states who are prepared to defend the CAP budget, as we enter into what will be extremely difficult negotiations.”

He also added that since farmers have to contend with environmental issues and volatile markets, they should not be asked to “do more and more for less and less”.

The meeting in Madrid came ahead of full CAP policy reform proposals which are set to be announced by EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan in Brussels today.