CAP reform: Flexibility is key

It is early to be getting excited about the CAP reform.

No one knew how much money they had to play with until the overall EU budget was agreed four weeks ago.

And last week’s first get-together of 27 EU agriculture ministers and the commission was not very conclusive. Council President Simon Coveney welcomed broad support for his proposal on distribution of payments within member states — but some ministers and Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos looked for greater movement to flat rate payments. A new redistributive payment proposal was broadly supported, but it came out of left field and will need lengthy consideration.