Moving EU farm payments to single flat rate is too radical: Coveney

Moving European farm payments to a single flat rate model by 2019 is too radical and risks penalising more productive farmers, according to Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney and his newly-appointed French counterpart, Stéphane le Foll.

At their meeting in Paris yesterday, they pledged their support for a strong and properly financed CAP in the future. This effectively restated the common goals established between Mr Coveney and Mr le Foll’s predecessor, Bruno Le Maire, notably in regards to common French and Irish doubts about the proposed move to a flat farm payments model.

Mr Coveney said: “We had a good discussion on this issue. Ireland’s priority is to obtain as much flexibility as possible for member states with regard to payment models and transitional arrangements. We would envisage an approximation model that would go part but not all of the way towards convergence and would limit the gains and losses for individual farmers.

“The logic used for redistribution between member states could easily be applied to internal redistribution.”

In regards to plans to attach “greening” measures to future farm payments under a revised CAP, they do not oppose the principle but note there are difficulties with the commission proposal, both in terms of the three greening criteria proposed and its effect on the single payment rate.

Mr Coveney said: “I was very pleased with our discussion. Traditionally, Ireland and France have adopted similar positions in regard to the CAP and this meeting shows that these shared ambitions still hold true.”

The ministers’ discussions touched on the likely outcome of the Multiannual Financial Framework negotiations for the next EU budget and the implications of these negotiations for the CAP reform process. They exchanged views on the key issues regarding the CAP, including the allocation and distribution of funding between member states, and the proposals to im-prove its green credentials.

Both agreed on the importance of EU agriculture and its contribution to growth and they pledged their support for a strong and properly financed CAP in the future. They agreed on the need for some rebalancing in the allocation of CAP funds between member states and stressed that this rebalancing should take into account payments under both CAP pillars.