David Barnes is the Scottish Government’s Deputy Director for Agriculture and Rural Development. He sits with his Minister around the Council of Agricultural Ministers’ table as the negotiations on the shape of the CAP2020 take place and, more interestingly, he blogs about it. His blog gives an insider’s view and a personal perspective on what is going on during the course of the negotiations.
Not surprisingly, his posts give some fascinating insights into the process.
The complexity of the CAP 2020 fineprint was demonstrated in one of his recent posts which addressed issues for new entrants that might arise under the Commission’s proposal for the allocation of entitlements under a new direct payments scheme. Written from the Scottish point of view, it illustrates the intricacies of developing legislation to cover all eventualities across all member states.
For example, the specific measure giving rise to the first difficulty he mentions for new entrants, the requirement that farmers receiving entitlements in 2014 should have activated at least one entitlement in 2011, was inserted into the Commission proposal at the last minute under pressure from the Irish.… Read the rest