No to proposal to cut EU farm spending
EU heads of states will be under pressure to make significant progress on agreeing the overall EU budget for 2014-2020, when they meet on November 22-23.
Now, for the first stage in the negotiations, Cyprus has introduced figures, in a plan for cuts across all headings of the budget, amounting to total savings of at least €50 billion.
But EU farmers and co-ops say the Cypriot proposals represent a significant cut in farm spending and risk threatening food security and rural development, which is totally unacceptable in view of rising food demand, higher production costs and substantial market volatility.
They say existing proposals implied a cut in the CAP budget of 10% in real terms, but the Cypriot plan proposes further cuts and increased levels of flexibility between pillars in agricultural spending.
The CAP is less than 1% of EU public expenditure, and must at least be kept at current levels until 2020, to ensure farmers and their co-ops have a viable future, warned the COPA-Cogeca farm lobby.
Their interpretation of the latest proposals is that member states may transfer up to 15% of resources available for direct payments to farmers to the second CAP pillar, and that member states should not have to co-finance these transferred funds.
COPA-Cogeca said the budget for the first pillar (mostly single farm payments) must be maintained in full, and strong national and regional support for rural development measures in the second pillar through co-finance should continue.
