Professional AdviceYou are here : In Your Area » North West » Regional News » Common Agricultural Policy » CAP Reform
CLA and NFU respond jointly to CAP reform proposals The CLA and NFU have described the release of the European Commission's extensively leaked Common Agriculture Policy Reform proposals as 'disappointing and a missed opportunity'. In a joint statement the CLA and NFU said: "The Commission says it wants "smart, sustainable and inclusive growth for European agriculture". Both the CLA and NFU believe very few of the proposals will help meet those objectives and many of them will actually move farming in England and Wales in the opposite direction. "In the last major reform of the CAP in 2003 we started with proposals that were generally helpful but unfortunately our own government implemented them in a way which was unequal for English farmers and hugely over-complicated. We, farmers, landowners and the Government, are still living with the consequences of those mistakes. This time we are starting with unhelpful proposals. The CLA and NFU, along with our allies in Europe, will do everything possible to improve them and remove some of the worst aspects. "Ministers have committed to ensuring that English farmers are not disadvantaged this time, and the CLA and NFU will be looking to them to work with us to avoid discrimination against English farmers, remove the excessive complexity in the current proposals and help farmers become more competitive.
"More specifically, in terms of equity, we want to ensure that we have equivalent greening measures throughout the European Union. The purpose of this reform must be to bring the whole of Europe up to the standard of the better-performing countries.
"We want to see a fair allocation of the budget to the UK, in both pillars, so there is no necessity subsequently to move money between the two pillars - in either direction. Specifically, we don't support the attempt to allow up to ten percent modulation. We also need to see the capping proposals that would discriminate against the UK rejected. In terms of reducing complexity, we want to see greening measures which can be easily administered and monitored.
"What we don't want to see are definitions of active farmers that would be a nightmare to enforce. The restrictive definition of an active farmer, and the proposed payment reduction and capping, are highly discriminatory - hitting farms of equal size and payment to a sharply different extent. They will also hinder structural changes that may be needed to improve efficiency.
"And in terms of competitiveness we would want the obligation to take up to seven percent of a farm's area out of production significantly reduced. We will also insist that any greening measures do not have perverse consequences from a market or agronomic point of view."
The CLA and NFU intend to work together throughout the CAP reform process to achieve these goals.
-ends-
Notes for editors: For further information on the CAP proposals see http://tinyurl.com/6koa2st |
Contact Douglas Chalmers
Douglas is from an Aberdeenshire farming family and trained as an animal nutritionist after graduating from the University of Aberdeen. He held technical and management positions in the agricultural supply industry for 20 years prior to joining the CLA in 2001 as North West Regional Director. He is a Governor of Myerscough College and a member of Cumbria Local Access Forum. He was previously Chairman of Cumbria Fells & Dales RDPE Local Action Group and Vice Chairman of the North West Rural Affairs Forum. Douglas and his wife own a small farm near Appleby-in-Westmorland keeping Herdwick sheep and free-range poultry, and where he has helped his wife to form Learning Fields, a Community Interest Company and care farming enterprise offering educational and environmental activities. He is also a member of Eden Time Bank. T: 01748 907070 F: 01748 907075 douglas.chalmers@cla.org.uk Have a problem - need advice? North West Office Aske Stables
Join the CLA today
The CLA Game Fair 2012
CLA Events in your area To receive our regular email newsletter containing advice and the latest news affecting the region - contact the office or send your email address and membership number to info.north@cla.org.uk |
RSS Feeds
- Policy Topics
- Policy Topics
- Site sections
- Specially for members
© 2012 Country Land and Business Association Limited (CLA). All rights reserved. No part of this website may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature without prior written permission of the copyright holder except as expressly permitted by law.
Disclaimer
No responsibility for loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action in reliance on or as a result of the material included in or omitted in this website can be or is accepted by the author(s), the CLA or its officers or trustees or employees or any other persons.
The Advisory Services are made available to members on the basis that members' rights to compensation and the liability (if any) of CLA and its officers and/or its staff advisers, are restricted in the following ways. In the event of any advice given by any CLA staff adviser being given negligently or otherwise being incorrect no liability whatsoever is accepted by the CLA or its officers or by its staff advisers concerned
(a) towards any person who is not the current CLA member to whom the advice was directly given,
(b) to any person in the respect of consequential loss or loss of profits, or
(c) to any person for any sum exceeding £50,000 in respect of any one enquiry (whether made or responded to orally or in writing and whether dealt with at one time or over a period of time).
Any person making use of the Advisory Services accepts such restrictions. Members should refer to appropriate professional advisers in private practice before taking any particular course of action potentially or actually involving any substantial amounts of money.
Please note that whilst the advisers are able to advise on a wide range of subjects relating to land ownership, they cannot act in place of a member's own solicitor, accountant, surveyor and tax specialist by, for example, drafting documents or corresponding on their behalf and may be precluded, by the rules of their own professions, from advising one CLA member against another CLA member in the case of conflict.
Solicitors Indemnity Fund . Solicitors in the CLA Legal Team are not covered by the Solicitors Indemnity Fund in relation to professional negligence in relation to any advice given by them.
Please note that from time to time telephone calls maybe recorded for training purposes.