EU’s seven year rural aid scheme held up by row over modulation
Countryside aid programmes for the next seven years are held up, because the European Parliament has blocked the European Commission’s proposal to allow 20% of farmers’ direct payments to be diverted to rural development projects, at the discretion of each Member State.
The Parliament initially shot down the proposal last autumn, and rejected it for a second time last month, with 89 votes in favour, 584 against and 19 abstentions.
The Commission must now decide if it will withdraw its proposal.
The Council will take the final decision on this issue on March 19 and 20.
European Parliamentarians warned that the proposal could create distortions in competition between farmers in various Member States, and could lead to a “re-nationalisation” of the CAP.
The row leaves Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel with a major funding problem, because the European Summit did not approve sufficient funding for rural development.
She said efforts are being made to accommodate Parliamentarians’ concerns.
She said all indicators point to voluntary modulation only being used in a very limited number of Member States to boost their rural development programmes.
Only the UK and Portugal would be expected to transfer 20% out of farmers’ Single Farm Payment into rural development funding.
It has sparked major rural controversy in the UK, where the Government may be considering different levels of modulation in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
As a result, English farmers could be left 20 or 25% worse off than their Welsh counterparts.
Opposition politicians in the UK blame the Labour government’s failure to secure a reasonable share of the EU’s rural development budget for the current row over voluntary modulation.
English MEP Neil Parish said, “This proposal is still a very bad deal for English farmers, but we must find a solution to the impasse so that rural development programmes are not stalled any longer.”
