Union boss says British farmers accept change but timing is vital
British National Farmers Union president Tim Bennett said CAP reform has come to be represented as a kind of magic wand that might provide the resolution not only to the WTO trade talks and world poverty, but also to any crisis of the European integration process.
Some media voices have been keen to present the farming community as a selfish group wishing to preserve the CAP at any cost. These are the same voices that over emphasise the percentage of the EU budget devoted to the CAP.
Mr Bennett said was appalling that the same British government that welcomed the radical reform in 2003 as promoting the role of farming as a business is not willing to recognise that businesses need a stable environment to allow them to plan.
“Can a business that has just started adapting to the last reform start thinking about further reforms? And how is a business expected to cope with an unannounced, unjustified shortfall in cash flow?”
Mr Bennett said farmers accept change and recognise the need for market focus, but timing is crucial.
“The 2003 agreement on CAP reform opened the way for renationalisation of the CAP by allowing for different degrees of decoupling and differences in reform implementation.
“And the recent deal on the EU budget presents even more causes for concern.”
Mr Bennett said these concerns are shared by the President of the European Commission who, in a letter to British prime minister Tony Blair, highlighted the competitive distortions that might arise from the introduction of voluntary national modulation with no match-funding.
“Our rejection of this concept is, and will continue to be, unambiguous.”
Mr Bennett said British farmers know they have to face more international competition, and strongly suspect there will be budget cuts in the future.
