EU to overhaul agriculture policy

THE EU Commission will today unveil a proposed shake-up of the Common Agriculture Policy.

But last night the Irish Farmers Association president Padraig Walshe said the Health Check to be announced in Brussels by Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel was secondary in significance to the agricultural cuts being offered in the world trade talks by Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.

“Any initiatives to be announced by Mariann Fischer Boel would be meaningless as EU agriculture would be decimated by the Mandelson proposals,” he said.