Redistributive payment likely part of CAP deal
He said the redistributive payment has received broad support among EU agriculture ministers, since it was added as an amendment to rules introduced by the Irish presidency for direct payments within member states.
However, the proposed redistributive payment would be voluntary each year for each member state, says Matthews, Professor Emeritus of European Agricultural Policy at Trinity College, and President of the European Association of Agricultural Economists.
As the proposal stands, member states could use up to 30% of their national single farm payment to finance the redistributive payment. The payment, at up to 65% of the existing average payment per hectare (€270 in Ireland), could be paid to each farmer per hectare for up to the average farm size (34 hectares in Ireland).
Simulations of its possible impact if adopted in Ireland indicate that it could increase the average single farm payment (SFP) on farms up to 20 hectares by 17 to 21%, approximately. Average SFP might increase 7.6% on farms in the 30 to 50 hectare range, but would fall about 10.6% for 50 to 100 hectares, and by 18.4% for farms over 100 hectares.
Member states using the proposed redistributive payment would have to prevent farmers from sub-dividing holdings, to create extra eligibility for the redistributive payment.
Its effect would be additional to, and on top of, any payment distributional effects from internal convergence towards a flat rate SFP. In addition, farmers could get the green payment, disadvantaged payment, young farmer payment, or small farmer payment, all proposed in the current CAP reform.
Redistributive payments are a French idea apparently intended to avoid too high a redistribution of payments from lower-income livestock farms to higher-income cereal farms in France, when moving to the regional flat rate SFP proposed by the European Commission.
Meanwhile, IFA has condemned Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney’s handling of CAP negotiations, with IFA pesident John Bryan saying he could “capsize” the sector, through income losses of at least 20% for the most productive farmers. Criteria such as stocking rates and labour units must be the basis of minimising losses for productive farmers, said Mr Bryan. IFA is expected to mount protests this weekend against the trend in CAP talks.
ICMSA says current CAP proposals will see payments to Irish family farms “fall dramatically” — even for farmers with low overall payments — according to ICMSA President John Comer. He said Mr Coveney should minimise the impact on farmers with low overall payments but with high payments per hectare.
