“Yesterday there was an important meeting of EU leaders in Brussels which continued today” says Roger Waite, the EU Agri Spokes person. These crucial meetings aim at finalising the EU budget for 2014-2020. The spokesperson elaborated on the matter by saying that “the Commission proposes to freeze the 2013 CAP spending in nominal terms and foresee a 12% drop in real terms from 2013 to 2020. However, the most recent compromise paper (from President of the Council Herman Van Rompuy) foresees a further cut of €25 billion over the period to give a total figure of €269.85 billion for 1st Pillar (Direct payments, market spending and the €2.8 billion Market Crisis reserve) and €83.67 billion for Rural Development.
This would mean an average reduction in Direct Payments from the status quo of roughly 7% (inc the €2.8bn reserve) and an average 19.6% (!) cut for Rural Development.
There have been various trilateral meetings yesterday with the prospect of a new Van Rompuy compromise paper.
Summit of EU leaders finished this evening (23.11.12), without an agreement on the EU budget 2014-2020. A new paper tabled by President of the Council Herman Von Rompuy yesterday provided an additional €8 billion for CAP direct payments after last week’s €25 billion cut for Direct Payments & Rural development, which seems to have brought a deal closer.
However, with too many differences, leaders opted to suspend talks and come back “early next year”. From our perspective, it’s a shame that the uncertainty for the future budget remains – and the delay in the decision-making process will make it even more difficult to have the new rules up and running by the start of 2014.” In the meantime, farmers in Malta keep on questioning about the future of CAP payments. We’ll have to keep on waiting to see the results of such hot debates.
Jeanette Borg 