There are new calls today (Saturday 18 April) for the next CAP budget to include “an increase in funding to at least 130% of the current budget”.
According to the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers’ Association (INHFA), the proposed cuts in the upcoming Common Agricultural Policy budget, if implemented, would “devastate” the agricultural sector and wider rural communities.
The current Common Agricultural Policy budget, scheduled to last until 2027, is €387 billion.
But the proposed CAP allocation after 2027 amounts to around €294 billion at EU level – a decline of around 20% in nominal terms compared to the current CAP period.
Ireland’s indicative Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) allocation will be €8.16 billion for 2028-34 – which compares to €10.7 billion in the current programming period, a reduction of between 20% and 24%, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Haydon said.
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However, in a new move earlier this week, a key committee in the European Parliament formally called for €433 billion to be allocated for the period 2028-2034 in the next Common Agricultural Policy.
Parliament’s Budget Committee adopted its formal negotiating mandate on the EU’s long-term budget – the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) – at a meeting on Wednesday (15 April).
The committee’s position was approved by a vote of 26 votes to nine, with five abstentions.
The Budget Committee’s position will have a major impact on Parliament’s broader position when it goes to negotiate the shape of the budget Next MFF and CAP With the Council of the European Union (Council of Ministers).
INHFA
INHFA strongly supported the position of the Parliament’s Budget Committee.
Willem Molloy, the organisation’s president, said farmers needed a “well-funded CAP budget” to support “food production and the ever-increasing environmental burden”.
Molloy also cited “high input costs, including energy, feed, fertilizers and compliance-related expenses” as key reasons why the CAP budget needed to be extended.
He also believes there is a new focus on the need to “protect food security across the EU” and that there is “disproportionate economic vulnerability in extensive and marginal farming systems”.
Molloy welcomed the position of the Parliament’s Budget Committee and “hopes that this proposal will be supported by other parliamentary committees and across other European Union institutions.”
