European Union farm policy to be ‘more justifiable to the taxpayer’

BIG changes are predicted in European Union farm policy, the Agricultural Science Association conference was told in Dublin yesterday.

Roger Waite, a leading Brussels-based commentator, said the future policy will be substantially different to the current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and above all it will be easily more justifiable to the taxpayer.

Mr Waite, who edits AGRA FACTS, the international newsletter on the CAP, said European Commission president José Barroso has made it clear the EU budget after 2013 should be spent on things which the taxpayer understands and that have a real European added value. It should concentrate on issues such as climate change or pooling resources for research and development, but not for paying farmers on the basis of how many cattle they had in 2000-2002.