EU FARM ministers meet today to negotiate changes in the Common Agricultural Policy (Cap) amid growing expectations among Irish MEPs of a possible €30 per ewe premium agreement.
The European Parliament concluded its review of the Cap yesterday.
While the parliament has no role in making decisions, its views were sought and are likely to influence the outcomes of the "health check", which seeks to streamline the system and redistribute its funds among farmers.
The parliament, for instance, voted to have farmers getting less than €10,000 in farm supports removed from the "modulation" system that would mean progressively taking a percentage from them and transferring it to rural development.
All the Irish MEPs, in the North and South, support the idea of unspent EU money being diverted to sheep farmers. However, they were not all in agreement on the future management of the milk quota scheme.
The commission has proposed a gradual increase in the amount of milk Europe's farmers are allowed to produce, but the parliament rejected the proposal from its own agriculture committee that the EU milk quota be increased by 2 per cent annually up to 2014, the last year the system will operate.
Jim Nicholson, the Ulster Unionist MEP, said he was opposed to a 2 per cent increase while Liam Aylward and Mairéad McGuinness were not.
The two main farming organisations - the Irish Farmers' Association and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association - also hold opposite views on the issue.
Avril Doyle, the Fine Gael Leinster MEP, said the growing worldwide demand for dairy products, which will increase by up to 35 per cent by 2020, would lead to some intensification of Irish dairy production.
If there was a shortfall on world food markets and Ireland cut its beef herd to meet emission levels, the shortfall would be most likely to be filled by countries with less sustainable farming systems and systems that generate far higher levels of emissions.
The EU agriculture commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, told parliament that the system of milk production would have to be amended so farmers could respond to world shortages and that was why the commission was proposing to allow an increase in quota.
"I am surprised that there is so much resistance to increasing the milk quota, knowing that last year we collected €338 million in superlevy from European milk producers," the commissioner said.
Other compromises adopted by MEPs would allow member states to use up to 15 per cent of the community funding to support hard-hit sectors such as livestock and dairy farming.
This could be used to contribute to insurance and mutual schemes and to broaden insurance coverage, notably, for all types of climate damage and for major losses caused by animal or plant disease.
It could also be used to increase community co-financing of these insurance schemes and mutual funds.
The farm negotiations in Brussels are expected to continue well into this evening and may not be concluded until a further session later this month.
Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith said ahead of the meeting that negotiations would be tough because of the divergence of views among the member states.
"I expect the negotiations to be tough as there are a wide range of views on the big issues, but I am hopeful that a reasonable deal can be done and agreement reached.
"Cap payments provide a vital measure of income stabilisation for small family farms.
"Many European small family farms would simply not survive without the support of the Cap," he said.