Tag: reform

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More on capping direct payments

Much initial reaction to the Commission’s leaked Health Check proposals has focused on its renewed attempt to introduce a cap on the Single Farm Payment amount which an individual farmer can receive. In fact, the proposal does not amount to a cap in the sense of an absolute ceiling, but takes of the form of a tapered payment Farmers receiving between €100,000 and €200,000 would face a 10% cut, those receiving between €200,000 and €300,000, a 25% cut and those receiving over €300,000, a 45% cut. Jack Thurston’s post yesterday highlights the limited impact the measure will have.

It might be useful to put the Commission’s proposal in some historical perspective. Capping was part of the Commission’s initial reform proposals in each of the past three CAP reforms – the 1992 MacSharry reform, the 1999 Agenda 2000 reform and the 2003 Mid-Term Review. In this post I review the evolution of this concept and corroborate the implications of the Commission’s Health Check proposals.… Read the rest

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Commission’s CAP Health Check proposals leaked

The Commission’s draft proposals for the CAP Health Check due to be officially released in November have now been widely leaked in the agricultural press (see the UK Farmers Guardian for one summary).

Much initial reaction has focused on the Commission’s renewed attempt to introduce a cap on the Single Farm Payment amount which an individual farmer can receive. Farmers receiving between €100,000 and €200,000 would face a 10% cut, between €200,000 and €300,000, a 25% cut and over €300,000, a 45% cut.

In the longer run, however, the proposals to move towards a standardised uniform, area-based system for calculating Single Payments from 2009, to eliminate partial coupling of arable payments, as well as to increase the compulsory modulation percentage from 5 to 13% by 2013 are likely to have greater significance for farmers and the direct payments system. Over the next few weeks, we plan to provide a more detailed analysis of these proposals on capreform.eu.… Read the rest

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Fischer Boel seduced by food security rhetoric

Experts on agricultural policy are often asked why the ‘farm lobby’ has been so successful although, of course, at EU level its influence has declined over time. In part this has been because it has been losing the debate and has often shown insufficient flexibility in responding to new framings of issues.… Read the rest

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CAP v GPS?

My farmsubsidy.org colleague Brigitte Alfter tells me that the Danish Liberal Party is proposing diverting CAP money to Galileo, the EU’s sat nav (Global Positioning Satellite) system.

If you had €55 billion what would you spend it on?

Update (20 September):

It looks as though the Danish Liberal Party are not the only ones eyeing up the CAP as a source of money for Galileo. Deutsche Welle reports that the Commission is now proposing that unspent CAP funds be used for the project. High commodity prices mean that the Commission has probably been spending less than expected on intervention and export subsidies, so there could well be some spare cash in the CAP pot. I suspect this is just the beginning of claims from other European projects for a slice of CAP largesse as we head towards the EU Budget Review and Health Check. … Read the rest

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Handy primer on CAP reform debate

The new issue of Food Ethics magazine is devoted to a discussion of CAP reform and the 2008 CAP Health Check. Alongside articles by CAP Health Check blogger Wyn Grant and me, you’ll find some useful analysis by many of the movers and shakers in the CAP debate, both in Brussels, the UK and elsewhere. Read article-by-article here, or download the entire magazine as a handy PDF file: Food Ethics – CAP Reform issue. The Food Ethics Council is a UK-registered charity that challenges government, business and society to make wise choices that lead to better food and farming.… Read the rest

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Danish parliament unanimously calls for elimination of CAP support

Some Danish colleagues told me recently that the Danish Parliament on 30 May last unanimously passed a resolution requiring the Danish government to propose a strategy for how it would actively work for the elimination of EU agricultural support. The strategy should include a timeframe and plan of activities which should take into account the planned CAP Health Check in 2008 and the review of the EU budget in 2009. The strategy should be presented to Parliament before the end of 2007. … Read the rest