Walsh warns of danger in sudden CAP reform

AGRICULTURE and Food Minister Joe Walsh warned yesterday about the dangers of any abrupt fundamental change to the EU Common Agricultural Policy.

In an address to a select committee of the British House of Commons in London, he said a sudden change to a completely liberalised policy would bankrupt most of the EU’s seven million farmers and would cause enormous economic and social upheaval in rural areas and in towns dependent on the rural economy.

“This would happen quite simply because farms in the EU where the average size is 18.4 hectares could not compete with farms in countries such as the US, Australia and New Zealand,” he said.