THE reform of the Common Agricultural Policy will top the agenda when EU Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Dacien Ciolos will visit Ireland from September 30 to October 1.

SOME environmental groups promoted ludicrous policies at the European Commission’s two-day conference in Brussels on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy, the Irish Farmers Association has claimed.

THE future direction of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was one of the issues discussed at a meeting in Brussels yesterday between Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith and European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Dacien Ciolos.

THE severity of the dairy income crisis in 2009 has been recognised by a High Level Group (HLG) on Milk, which the European Commission set up last year.

THE approach adopted by the European Commission on the first intervention stock sale since 2007 was described as cautious and welcome by the Irish Farmers Association.