‘No major CAP changes until 2013’

THERE will be no further fundamental changes to the Common Agricultural Policy before 2013, the EU Farm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has told the Oireachtas.

“I want to give farmers in Ireland and the rest of the EU as much stability as possible. No economic sector can work profitably and sustainably if the policy framework is in a constant state of revolution.”

She said the EU’s trade partners in the WTO will be disappointed if they expect it to sacrifice its agricultural sector.