More for farmers after EU’s 2014 budget marathon

The EU will transfer an even larger share of its total resources to farmers next year, as a result of the budget deal reached this week, says CAP expert Alan Matthews.

The EU now has its long-term budget and the budget for the coming financial year in place, subject to formal ratification by the Council and Parliament. It required a marathon session of the budget conciliation committee (comprising all 28 member states’ budget ministers and an equal number of parliamentarians) lasting 16 hours last Monday to agree compromises on the 2013 and 2014 budgets. According to Matthews, one consequence of the bargaining was to reverse, at least temporarily, a long-run decline in the CAPs share of the EU budget.

CAP expenditure had ended up reduced by 2 or 3% — but its share of the total EU budget rises to 41%.