The European Parliament’s Environment Committee has given its opinion on the upcoming Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), drafted by Irish MEP Sian Kelly.
Kelly leads the work on the Committee’s post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy.
talking to Agriland After publishing his opinion – which the committee adopted by a large majority this week – the Fine Gael MEP called for payments to part-time farmers to be protected in the next Common Agricultural Policy.
He said: “This idea, coming from the (European) Commission that your off-farm income will be taken into account, I said should be hit on the head, because a lot of farmers, their farms are not viable, but they work the land, they produce food, and then they complete off-farm jobs.
The South Ireland TD added: “There are too many people in society who work two jobs, and just because they work one means they should not be penalized for the other.”
Kelly said it’s what he called the “armed farmer” who should instead see his payments cut.
“It’s the armchair farmers, the ones who have withdrawn the money, some of them are big money, some of them are conglomerates, some of them are big companies, some of them are even sporting bodies; all of those have to be looked at, and the farmer should get the money, not the armchair farmer or the non-farmers,” he said.
Kelly said the opinion he had drafted on the Environment Committee’s upcoming Common Agricultural Policy reflected a “reasonable and practical approach” taken by his fellow MEPs.
The Environment Committee’s opinion will be considered by Parliament’s Agriculture Committee, which has primary responsibility for the post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy. Through that committee, Parliament will be informed of its position on what the next Common Agricultural Policy should look like.
Kelly’s role on the Environment Committee essentially mirrors that of German MEP Norbert Lenz, who leads the Agriculture Committee’s work on the post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy. who published his opinion on the upcoming CAP last month.
Kelly Report
Like the Agriculture Committee, the Kelly report calls for financing the Common Agricultural Policy of up to €433 billion, a significant increase from the €290 billion proposed by the Commission.
Of the €433 billion, the Environment Committee wants to protect at least €108 billion for agricultural, environmental and climate measures.
However, Kelly cautioned that the exact final figure for the CAP budget has yet to be determined; But he wants to use the number shown in his report as evidence.
He said, “I think you will not get this number in the end, but it will be an indicative number regarding the final agreement, which the (Irish) government, which now holds the presidency of the (European Union Council), will make an effort to achieve.”
“If they can come to a broad agreement, I think that would be a huge help in getting the whole thing over as quickly as possible, so that the next cap can start when it’s supposed to start in 2028,” Kelly added.
Conditionality and “farm supervision”
One point of difference between this Environment Committee report and the previous Agriculture Committee report is the “farm management” model proposed by the Committee, which would effectively be the new requirement.
The proposed model will allow more flexibility for Member States regarding how environmental and climate actions are designed and how they are implemented.
Although the Agriculture Committee’s report amended this proposal to remove that flexibility – so that common environmental standards could be established across the EU – the Kelly report left the Commission’s proposal intact.
“First you have to respect the fact that farmers are custodians of the land,” he said. “It is in their interest, and they are proud of their work.”
“So I think the idea that there should be some kind of constant review of it, monitoring, inspection and oversight, I think that’s exaggerated,” he added.
“So we can say that if we had the right regulations and the right support – which are higher in Europe than elsewhere – there would be no need to prosecute farmers in terms of how they do business,” the MEP said.
