THE EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Mariann Fischer Boel, will recommend a complete decoupling of farm subsidies from production in a major paper on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to be published this week.
In the commissioner’s so-called “health check”, she is reported to have said that subsidies still partially linked to production volumes have become much less relevant following the Cap reform of 2003.
The commissioner, according to sources in Brussels, is recommending that EU countries aim for full decoupling, with no subsidies tied to production. Ireland has already adopted this system.
Remaining coupled payments should be integrated into the EU’s decoupled single farm payment scheme, but some partially linked schemes would be allowed to remain. These schemes would include special payments for beef cow welfare and for the sheep and goat sector.
Ms Fischer Boel is also recommending that the EU move towards a “flatter rate system” from 2009, and away from the payments that continue to be made based on historical payouts in the first three years of this century.
Countries that opted for such a historical model, like Ireland, will be allowed to review this and take account of specific geographical areas. Payment amounts will be fixed for the beef/veal, rice, nuts, starch potato and cotton sectors, as well as for sheep and goats, per animal.
In her paper, the commissioner is also recommending the ending of the energy crop premium of €45 per hectare for growing feed stock crops to produce biofuels.
One of the most contentious parts of her plan, likely to meet a lot of opposition from farm groups, is her “modulation” proposals. Under this, farmers will from 2009 see more money being diverted from mainline farming into rural development.
The commissioner has proposed that this amount will be set at 7 per cent in 2009 and rise by two percentage points each year to stand at 13 per cent by 2013.
She has also proposed a sliding scale for this rerouting of money, with the bigger farms diverting more money than the smaller ones.
Holdings with income of between €100,000 and €199,000 will have to pay 3 per cent towards rural development; those with between €200,000 and €299,000, 6 per cent, and those with more, 9 per cent.
Ms Fischer Boel is proposing the abolition of market intervention supports for durum wheat, rice and pig meat, but will retain the right of emergency intervention for cereals used for breadmaking.