A soft Brexit is important to Dutch farmers and the current CAP budget needs to be kept as is, Marc Calon, the president of the Dutch farmer’s organisation, the LTO, has said. The LTO president welcomed the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Phil Hogan, to the Netherlands for part of the Commissioners common dialogue on his Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) communication published at the end of November.
A soft Brexit is important to Dutch farmers and the current CAP budget needs to be kept as is, Marc Calon, the president of the Dutch farmer’s organisation, the LTO, has said.
The LTO president welcomed the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Phil Hogan, to the Netherlands for part of the Commissioners common dialogue on his Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) communication published at the end of November.
His view on the future of the CAP was fully supported by Dutch farmers, Calon said. He recognised that the CAP proposals in the communication were what society expected from farmers.
He identified two immediate problems for Commissioner Hogan, the first being the budget that would likely be available for the CAP after 2020 when the UK leaves, and they had to help him lobby for that budget.
The second issue he identified was a desire for a soft Brexit and he also commented that it was something that the Commissioner could do very little about.
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The Dutch farm leader recognised that his own Dutch government was one of those that needed persuasion to invest more.
He pointed out the investment in CAP and food security was 30c per day compared to the health service which costs €12.30 per day.
He pointed out that food security, delivered through the CAP gave the impression that it was a huge amount of money but in fact it wasn’t when the other things that were paid for by the member states were considered. The Dutch government required a push!
He welcomed the Commissioner’s comments on research and innovation as being something that would find favour with Dutch farmers, and he felt Phil Hogan was in tune with what society wanted in this area.
Challenges
The main challenges identified for Dutch farmers was the new CAP emphasising that they wanted no renationalisation but welcomed the opportunity for member states to fill in the greening measurement.
Brexit was also identified as a huge challenge with the President pointing out that the Netherlands were big exporters to the UK.
A soft Brexit was very important for Dutch farmers he added.
In response to a query about what influence the Netherlands might have with the UK given that they were close allies, the LTO President responded that they have met with the National Farmers Union (NFU) in the UK and they were also lobbying the Dutch government as well to push for a soft Brexit.
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