‘Closing CAP gap unaffordable’

The EU has agreed its budget for 2020 and it largely protects funding for CAP direct payments.

One commitment is that 20% of all EU spending will have to be seen to be directed towards climate change alleviation.

With Brexit setting the EU on a course to future tight budgets, the incoming EU farm commissioner, Poland’s Janusz Wojciechowski, has ruled out any early moves to close the gap in CAP funding between member states.

The pressure has been to balance the lowest upwards to the highest, rather than averaging, but he warned this would cost between 12 and 20 billion euro. This funding is not available, no matter how committed member states may be to the concept of EU-wide payments.

The commissioner said he remained committed to the principle, but made clear that for the foreseeable future it is unaffordable. Countries from the Baltic states and central and eastern Europe are the losers in this equation. They had hoped that coming from Poland, Wojciechowski would find ways to close the gap.

Farm unions and largely green NGOs (non governmental organisations) are not normally on the same side in arguments. But they have joined forces against the Mercosur trade agreement between the EU and a number of South American countries, led by Brazil.

COPA and others underlined the threat to products such as beef and poultry and warned that many smaller farmers would be squeezed out of business because they would be unable to compete at the lower prices the Mercosur deal would drive. They also warned that products would not meet EU hygiene and quality standards.

The NGOs criticised Brazil in particular for its poor environmental and social standards and for recent fires and other damage to rainforests. The group appeared before MEPs, who were largely sympathetic to their views. However, the European Commission is continuing to robustly defend the deal, on grounds that it offers an overall net gain for eurozone economies.

Meanwhile, back home, despite claims from Boris Johnson that a trade deal in 11 months (the end of 2020) would be easy, this has been rebuffed by the EU’s new official in charge of trade negotiations.

Sabine Weyand told a private meeting of business leaders this was an impossible timetable. She suggested that by the end of 2020, the UK could end up with a “bare bones deal” to keep trade ticking over while negotiations continued. She also warned that a no trade deal outcome remained possible.

Eastern European countries had hoped to benefit from the EU farm commissioner coming from Poland.