Greening to be one of amendments to commission’s CAP proposals

Greening according to farm size is predicted as one of 38 amendments to the European Commission’s CAP proposals due from the European Parliament’s agriculture committee later this month.

On Jan 23 and 24, the agriculture committee will vote on the amendments — a vital step in CAP reform talks, because the parliament was given full CAP co-decision powers with the European Council by the Lisbon treaty.

Up to this year, the council could choose to ignore or take on board the parliament’s opinion on CAP reform.

Controversially, the commission has proposed that 30% of single farm payments to farmers be allocated to “greening”, and paid over to them only if they practice crop diversity, protect permanent pasture, and set aside 7% of their land for ecological areas, including forests, wetlands, and marshes.

According to Irish MEP Máiréad McGuinness’s speech at last week’s Oxford Farming Conference, there is strong parliament opposition to the three greening measures of crop diversification, permanent pasture, and ecological focus area, as being too prescriptive and too bureaucratic for farmers.

“A blank one-size-fits-all approach favoured by the EU Commission is unacceptable,” she said.

Ms McGuinness told the conference that the CAP reform can be concluded by the end of June, under the Irish EU presidency, but only if everything goes to plan. First heads of state and government have to agree the overall seven-year EU budget next month.

This would be followed by crucial March votes in the parliament on the budget and on the policy reform, and negotiations between the parliament and the Council of Farm Ministers.

Meanwhile, IFA president John Bryan has warned that CAP reform negotiations will not be easy.

“2013 is going to be a defining year for the future of productive farming, with the conclusions of the CAP reform negotiations key among the issues of concern.

“The immediate priority must be to ensure that a full EU CAP budget is secured for Ireland by our Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the heads of government meeting in February,” he said.

“Farmers will be expecting Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney to deliver the necessary flexibilities in the future single farm payment system that supports active farmers and does not disrupt production at farm level. Funding for Pillar II will be critical for vulnerable regions and sectors.”