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29th Mar 2024

EU unveils plan to cap farm subsidies

  • Mariann Fischer Boel says the CAP is not sick but needs a health check to keep it in good shape (Photo: European Commission)

The European Commission has proposed a set of measures aimed at preparing the farming sector for possible budgetary cuts in the future, while reacting angrily to accusations of subsidising golf clubs rather than farmers through its current system.

"It's quite normal for perfectly healthy people to see their doctor," EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel stated in her presentation of the "health check" of the EU's common agriculture policy (CAP) on Tuesday (20 November).

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She added that while such a check-up does not necessarily mean "the patient is sick", the changes she proposed in the way the EU spends about 40 percent of its money "will make a real difference for farmers, consumers and taxpayers."

Her package seeks to address three main goals - to make the current direct farm subsidies more efficient; to boost market tools in the sector; and respond to new challenges to agriculture, such as climate change, food security and water management.

While Mrs Fischer Boel stressed that Tuesday's blueprint is just aimed at launching a six-month discussion period - with the actual legislative proposals based on that debate to follow next May - it does contain some concrete suggestions.

Big cuts for big beneficiaries

The idea of capping and cutting payments for farmers, particularly the current biggest beneficiaries, and shifting the extra money to rural development is likely to spark the most controversy.

The commission envisages "gradually reducing the support level as overall payments to big farmers increase, starting from the level of, for example, €100,000 per year." Mrs Fischer Boel argued the move would mean "that you never cut completely everything, but the more you get the more the higher the percentage of the cut could be."

The decision would mainly affect countries like Germany, the UK, Spain or Denmark but also several of the "new" EU countries in central Europe.

Peter Baco, a Slovak non-attached member of the European Parliament's agriculture committee, argues that in Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic but also in the eastern part of Germany, the measures would harm the best performers.

"It is a totally unacceptable idea. In our region, it would be an attack against farmers who are the most effective and successful and it would lead to a move by most of them to split up into smaller farms so that they can apply for subsidies," he said.

For its part, the EU executive argues that it wants to "differentiate between multiple-owner farms with many workers and single-owner farms with just a few" and find ways to prevent the splitting-up of big farms in attempt to qualify for EU aid.

Farms or golf clubs?

The CAP health check is due to be finalised in the second half of next year, under the French EU presidency, with Paris still featuring as the biggest beneficiary of EU farm funds.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has announced he wants to secure a modernisation of Europe's oldest common policy, but insiders say his ideas are likely prove quite different from commissioner Fischer Boel's.

Meanwhile, Mrs Fischer Boel reacted angrily to a report released last week by the European Court of Auditors which highlighted some of the consequences of an earlier reform of EU farm policy dating from 2003.

The auditors pointed out that the reform has resulted in the allocation of cash to landlords who have never practiced agriculture, such as railway companies, horse riding or golf clubs.

In her reaction, Mrs Fischer Boel dismissed the claims as a "stupid message" which was "completely out of the question" and never "our intention" when pursuing the CAP overhaul.

"It's a pity that all the efforts and all the improvement that we have made in agriculture to secure that money is duly spent is totally overshadowed by a history of golf courses. And that's why I'm pissed off with that discussion," the commissioner commented.

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