Wednesday

27th Sep 2023

EU plans to defend farm policy but limit large payments

  • Debate on the EU's future farm policy has already seen member state clashes under the Belgian presidency (Photo: EUobserver)

European Commission proposals to be published next month are set to defend the bloc's interventionist Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post 2013, but will also propose a reformed system of payments including a ceiling on the largest handouts.

"Withdrawing public support would lead to greater concentration of agricultural production in some areas … while less competitive areas would face marginalisation and land abandonment," reads a draft copy of the upcoming commission communication seen by EUobserver.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

"Such developments would result in increased environmental pressures ... with serious economic and social consequences," continues the text, likely to disappoint supporters of a significantly more market-orientated CAP in the future.

The ideas paper – to be followed by concrete legislative proposals in July 2011 – calls for a restriction on the largest direct handouts to farmers, with stories of ‘subsidy millionaires' among factors contributing to negative public sentiment in recent years.

Grants of €1 million or more were made to over 1000 entities in the EU in 2009, says Farmsubsidy, a CAP watchdog group which analyses the online data published by member states.

In the same year, a Swedish accordion club received €59,585, while a Danish billiards club netted €31,515, a practice the commission hopes to weed out in future by limiting aid to "active" farmers.

Distributing the money

The question of how to distribute CAP payments between 'older' and 'newer' member states has also added to tensions in recent months.

European agriculture ministers clashed on the subject in September, with France and Germany rejecting a Polish proposal to introduce a per-hectare distribution for the subsidies.

While farmers in newer member states are currently paid according to farm size, those in the EU15 receive payments calculated using a complicated system that takes into account historic stock or crop levels.

As a result, subsides vary from over €500 per hectare in Greece to less than €100 in Latvia, a system the newer member states are keen to change.

While the commission plans acknowledge the need for a fairer distribution, they also appear lukewarm towards a simple hectare-based rate on the grounds that "agricultural producers face very different economic and natural conditions across the EU."

Instead, one suggestion in the paper proposes that farmers receive a minimum income support payment, variable according to their country, plus a further payment linked to environmental protection.

EU budget

The debate on agricultural reform is closely linked to the EU's future budget post-2013, with politicians in the Netherlands and UK among those hoping to reduce their national contributions to Brussels in the future.

But the commission's CAP communication assumes that the EU's farm budget will remain stable at roughly €55 billion a year, although EU officials acknowledge they will have to fight to maintain this figure, even within the college of 27 commissioners.

"Some in the college don't understand why roughly 40 percent of the money should go to agriculture," one EU official recently told this website, insisting that it represented good value when reduced national spending was taken into account.

Next year's legislative proposals will need European Parliament and member state support if they are to become law.

EU Ombudsman warns of 'new normal' of crisis decision-making

Emily O'Reilly cited the post-pandemic recovery funds, the windfall taxes on energy companies, and the joint purchase of vaccines, as procedures which received limited scrutiny from the national parliaments — as a result of emergency decision-making powers that bypassed parliament.

Opinion

How do you make embarrassing EU documents 'disappear'?

The EU Commission's new magic formula for avoiding scrutiny is simple. You declare the documents in question to be "short-lived correspondence for a preliminary exchange of views" and thus exempt them from being logged in the official inventory.

Opinion

How do you make embarrassing EU documents 'disappear'?

The EU Commission's new magic formula for avoiding scrutiny is simple. You declare the documents in question to be "short-lived correspondence for a preliminary exchange of views" and thus exempt them from being logged in the official inventory.

Latest News

  1. Germany tightens police checks on Czech and Polish border
  2. EU Ombudsman warns of 'new normal' of crisis decision-making
  3. How do you make embarrassing EU documents 'disappear'?
  4. Resurgent Fico hopes for Slovak comeback at Saturday's election
  5. EU and US urge Azerbijan to allow aid access to Armenians
  6. EU warns of Russian 'mass manipulation' as elections loom
  7. Blocking minority of EU states risks derailing asylum overhaul
  8. Will Poles vote for the end of democracy?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators, industry & healthcare experts at the 24th IMDRF session, September 25-26, Berlin. Register by 20 Sept to join in person or online.
  2. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  3. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  4. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators & industry experts at the 24th IMDRF session- Berlin September 25-26. Register early for discounted hotel rates
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch
  6. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us