British presidency ‘harmful to EU’
Fine Gael MEP Mairéad McGuinness said the intransigence and negative attitude of the presidency has created an unhealthy and unnecessary divide between farmers and non-farmers in rural regions.
She said that by linking a deal on the EU budget to radical reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the British Prime Minister has thrown the EU into chaos and has made the resolution of the EU budget for 2007-2013 even more intractable.
Ms McGuinness said that without agreement on the budget, there will be no new rural development policy after 2007 and rural areas in Ireland that benefited least from the recent economic boom will fall further behind.
The confidence of rural dwellers in the EU has been shattered in recent months. The major reform of the CAP was agreed in 2003 and supported by the British and their cohorts in the so-called club of six member states, she said.
Now this same group wants to dismantle the agreement before its first phase is implemented, she told the Irish LEADER Support Unit rural development conference in Croke Park, Dublin.
The conference was also told Irish farmers are among the best educated in the EU.
Eamon O’Hara, Irish Regions Office, Brussels, said Ireland, Germany, Holland, Denmark and Finland have the best educated farmers.
