Russian ban may hit farmers’ pockets
Irish co-ops and farmers called last week for special funding to compensate farming and food sectors hit by the ban.
They said the ban resulted from EU political decisions , and farmers shouldn’t be asked to pay for that. However, CAP experts predict a crisis fund collected by taking 2.45% from EU payments to farmers in the past year will be one of the first budgets to be spent on Russian ban compensation.
Member states and farmers had been hoping for crisis reserve funds to go unspent and be returned to them next year. Already, the EU emergency measures to support the dairy sector and the fruit and vegetable sector total about 177.7m. With no letup in Russia-Ukraine tensions, and compensation measures likely to increase in the EU, the current crisis fund of 424m built into the CAP, is likely to be overspent.
And with the EU 2014 budget year ending in October 16, compensation measures will soon start clocking up for the new year, which could mean a second year of farmers’ 2.45% crisis fund deduction being spent, rather than returned into farmers’ pockets. Manwhile, In other Brussels news, the possibility of Phil Hogan may have improved.
The existing commissioner may be out of the running, because European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is rumoured to have decided against reappointing Romania’s Dacian Ciolo for a second term, and Romania is expected to instead nominate a woman as their Commissioner.
Spain’s former agriculture minister Miguel Arias Cañete is seen as a possible choice. Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said he asked Mr Juncker in Brussels last week to appoint Mr Hogan to a Commissionership associated with investment and jobs. Mr Kenny said Juncker expected to make commissionership nominations within days.
