IFA threatens EU protest

IRISH Farmers should lead a mass protest across the EU to protest at demands for new talks on the Common Agricultural Policy, it was claimed yesterday.

Britain and France are at loggerheads over Tony Blair's demands for the 2002 deal on agricultural produce to be renegotiated.

But Irish Farmers'Association (IFA) deputy president Ruaidhri Deasy yesterday said that any backtracking on CAP would lead to "total and absolute uproar".

"Farmers will not stand for it," he said. "I will lead a pan-European protest in which the IFA and all other EU farming organisations will shake the EU to its foundations."

Britain won a €4.5 million cut on its contributions to the EU in 1984 because it gained little from agricultural subsidies.

However, Mr Blair said he is only to willing to consider France's demands to reduce the rebate if talks on CAP are reopened.

Mr Deasy, whose father lead a 30,000-strong farmers protest to the Dáil in 1966, said: "Farmers across Europe will unite to fight this just like Irish farmers united in the 1960s."

A 20-day sit-in outside Agricultural Minister Charlie Haughey's office finally secured formal negotiating rights with government.

Mr Deasy said the 2002 CAP deal is legally binding and could be defended in the European courts. "To have a contract torn up while farmers across Europe are trying to work within its framework is not only unfair but illegal."

The IFA official, whose organisation represents 85,000 farmers, also accused Mr Blair of posturing to his urban power base.

Mr Deasy added: "For the EU to survive in the years ahead it must be able to produce as much as it consumes. A secure supply of safe food, jobs, alternative sources of fuel, raw materials and a clean environment are key components in any sustainable model for our future."