Shake-up of farm payments on the way, says Coveney

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney insisted a shake-up in farm payments was on the way as the EU tried to thrash out a new deal.

Changes to the way direct payments are made to farmers continued to be a sticky issue as ministers from across Europe met to look at the common agricultural policy (CAP).

Mr Coveney insisted progress was being made, and an overhaul of the system was coming.

“Some farmers are doing very very well, other farmers have done not so well. And that’s based on productivity back in 2002, 2003. They were the base years.

“And so we do need to see some redistribution.

“Farmers that are getting very high payments per hectare at the moment will lose some of those payments, and farmers that have been getting very low payments will gain,” he said.

EU agriculture ministers are meeting in Dublin for a two-day round of informal talks on reforming CAP.

They have been joined for the negotiations by representatives of the European Parliament and European Commission, and Mr Coveney said the drawing together of a number of institutions would strengthen a deal which is hoped to be reached by the end of the Irish presidency of the EU in June.

Disagreements on how much of the direct payments should be carved-up between land area and volume of production.

Paulo De Castro, chairperson of the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, said reaching agreement would not be easy.

“It’s not very easy. We have 27 different approaches, we have three European Institutions.

“This is the first important decision under the co-decision process, so it means all the three institutions should agree,” Mr De Castro said.