Protecting the Common Agricultural Policy must be “priority number one”, the Irish Farmers’ Association has told the European Commission.
IFA President Francie Gorman met with the European Commissioner for Agriculture Christophe Hansen earlier this week on a visit to Dublin.
It comes as the EU discusses the future long-term EU budget.
Under current proposals, the European Commission will merge the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) into a giant fund to be branded the National and Regional Partnership Plans.
It will have €865 billion, nearly half the EU’s total budget for 2028 to 2034.
The European Commission has promised a “ring-fenced” amount of “at least €300 billion for income and crisis support” for farmers.
But the IFA fears a blurring of the lines and the risk that money designed for farmers could instead by used for the EU’s other priorities.
The IFA maintains that the current plans would, in reality, amount to a big cut in agricultural funding.
“The proposed cut to the dedicated CAP budget by over 20 percent will create even more financial pressure on some of our most vulnerable farmers”, says Francie Gorman.
“It’s going to mean even lower farm incomes which in turn will have environmental, social and economic consequences in terms of economic activity and jobs supported throughout rural Ireland.”
Negotiations over the budget are likely to run for many months, but the IFA wants to get in its position as early as possible.
Francie Gorman said the next CAP needs to put the farmer who consistently produces the highest quality food “at its core”.
“The vibes from Commissioner Hansen at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on EU Affairs was that the budgetary issues have largely been resolved. As far as we are concerned, there is still much to be done,” he said.