Coveney pressures counterparts on CAP reform

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney ramped up pressure on his EU counterparts and on the European Parliament, threatening to keep them negotiating late into the night to get agreement on a new farming and food policy for the next decade, but no deal is expected until tomorrow.

Farmers are as divided as the member states about a wide range of issues that will affect how much they will get from the EU budget of about €50bn a year, and just who will get it.

The IFA, the country’s biggest farming lobby, are in Luxembourg for the two days of talks demanding that Mr Coveney maintain the flexibilities he secured in the talks earlier in the year. They also mounted a protest in Dublin outside the Department of Agriculture.