€300,000 cap on direct EU payments?

NO EU farm will earn more than €300,000 of direct payments per year after 2004, if the EU Commission has its way.

Officials made it clear at last Thursday’s EU Council of Agriculture Ministers that they intend to press ahead with their CAP mid-term review. However, Ireland’s Joe Walsh is among the Agriculture Ministers predicting that there will be no CAP changes before 2007 - following a recent resolution of some of the threats to the CAP budget.

Nevertheless, the Commission is to go ahead with preparing its legislative proposals among which is a single direct payment per holding, decoupled from production, beginning in 2004, and covering existing and new direct payments for cereals, oilseeds, protein crops, grain legumes, starch potatoes, beef, sheep, rice, durum wheat and dried fodder.