McGuinness fears suspension of schemes may just be the beginning
Concerned at the tone of EU budget commissioner Dalia Grybauskaite’s latest comments, Ireland East MEP, Mairead McGuinness, said “the suggestion that spending on agriculture and food production should be mainly the responsibility of individual member states, with national governments co-financing direct payments to farmers, needs clarification.
The recent Irish experience in Budget 2009, where the Government dropped parts of the co-financed rural development plan, does not bode well for the future if member states can opt in or out of such policies. The debate on budget reform is now underway and the Irish government must ensure that attacks on the CAP are fully defended,” she said.
