Selling of CAP begins

The European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan travelled to Luxembourg this week to formally present his legislative proposals to the Council of EU Agricultural Ministers.

In an interview with the Irish Farmers Journal, the commissioner said the agriculture ministers had already signed off on the principle of member states taking more control and that the current version of CAP had caused some frustration. He emphasised that tackling simplification was a integral part of his job since he took up his position as commissioner in 2014.

CAP budget

The other big talking point in Luxembourg was the budget and how a cut to the CAP might be avoided. Ireland has been to the forefront in pushing for this and the coalition of the willing has now grown to 17 member states. However, the problem is that the whole 27 have to be on board and there is a hard core of northern European countries that are steadfastly opposed to any increase.

The Dutch prime minister, who is one of the opponents, spoke recently about a reduced EU having a reduced budget to reflect its loss of a major member.

The Netherlands have been consistently opposed to budget increases since they became net contributors back in 2002. Ireland are now moving into the position where we will also be net contributors to the EU budget and, while the Taoiseach has committed to increasing Ireland’s contribution to maintain the CAP budget, it is likely a debate will develop in Ireland in the years ahead about our contribution.

Brexit deficit

A core difficulty with EU finances after 2020 is the approximately €12bn gap caused by the UK departure. The Commissioner was scathing this week in discussions with the Irish Farmers Journal about Brexit, describing the failure of the UK to come forward with proposals on the Irish border as an “appalling situation”. He said he hoped the UK would bring something meaningful in the white paper it is bringing forward that would reflect the agreement of last December.

He also warned that we are facing the unpalatable situation of no deal, saying: “It takes two sides to come to an agreement and if we don’t know from an EU perspective what the UK position is, then how can we come to an agreement.”

Elaborating further, he warned that with every day that passes a no-deal scenario becomes more of a possibility, and it was “very dangerous for this situation drifting on”.

Mercosur

When asked by the Irish Farmers Journal if a trade deal with Mercosur was now imminent following the round of negotiations concluded recently in Uruguay, the Commissioner said a big gap remained to be bridged, referring to the issues tabled by the EU before Christmas on a range of products the EU wanted access to Mercosur countries for. These included cars, car parts, recognition of GIs, dairy, and that the EU is “nowhere near” resolution of these key issues, and the recent round of negotiations in Uruguay did not make much progress on these.

The Commissioner went on to say that he didn’t see “an end game in these negotiations at the moment” and that the ball was in the court of the Mercosur countries.

Australia and New Zealand

While Irish farmers may take some comfort that the potential for a Mercosur deal has receded for the moment, the European Commissioner for trade, Cecelia Malmström was in Australia and New Zealand this week formally kicking off trade deal negotiations with Australia and New Zealand. Both these countries are huge exporters of agri produce though New Zealand already has a huge lamb quota for the EU market, originating with the UK joining back in 1973, an issue that remains to be resolved on the UK departure.

Australia has always looked at this with envy and negotiation of access for sheepmeat will be a priority for them. They are also continually in the top three beef exporting countries in the world so no doubt they will look for beef access as well. None of this is good news for major EU beef and sheepmeat producing countries such as Ireland, even though they have been advised to be realistic in their ambitions for these products.

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