EU forced to back down on payments cut
The commission had proposed to cut payouts to farmers receiving €100,000 or more, by between 10% and 45%.
British and German farmers would have been hit hardest. As well as aristocrats in Britain and the owners of former communist co-op farms in eastern Germany, Czech and Danish farmers would also have suffered. More than 50% of Czech farmers, owning 98% of Czech farmland, would have been affected. Some 80% of EU farm subsidies go to about 20% of its farmers.
The commission had suggested progressive reductions until the total annual subsidy to an individual came under a fixed figure, expected to be about €100,000.
Subsidies taken from the largest farmers were to be shifted to rural development funding, but the commission will have to redraft its proposals, for presentation on May 20.
Agriculture ministers who opposed the proposal warned that cutting payments for the biggest farms could lead to artificial splits into smaller farms.
An earlier attempt, in 2002, to cap payouts at €300,000 was similarly abandoned due to British and German opposition.
