EU to reform farms with a new ‘fair’ and ‘green’ policy

The EU is to reform the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) though subsidy caps. The caps will be linked to environmental concerns. There has been immediate criticism from some members, including the UK, Italy and Poland.

The key proposal is a call to make 30 percent of the EU direct farm subsidies to be conditional on respecting the environment. This will include crop diversity, maintaining permanent pastures and creating fallow land for plants and wildlife. Currently €140 billion is spent on the CAP each year and it is one of the major expenditures of the EU.

In the past there have been claims of a free for all, but now the subsidy system will be fair, claim the EU agricultural ministry. Payouts will be capped at €300,000 per year, with progressive levies on payouts over €150,000.

Countries with large farms are against the moves, which they say will lead to a break up of large farms. Even though the UK acknowledged that both the environment and the economy necessitated a change of thinking on the CAP, the Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said the move would ‘take us backwards’ and that it was ‘dissapointing’.

The big winners in this move will be the former Eastern Block countries, who currently receive much less in comparison to the founding EU members. This will not be reversed completely, but countries like Romania, Bulgaria and Latvia will receive considerable increases.

It is hoped that the proposals will improve the environment and biodiversity, whilst helping to reduce the vast sums of money spent by the EU on agriculture.