The EU is set to reform its €50 billion a year farm policy from 2013, and those keen to maintain current spending levels are conscious of the need to link CAP priorities to the bloc's wider economic, social and environmental goals (EurActiv 27/04/10).
"An approach based on economic growth and employment, food security and green growth [...] should help to confirm the CAP's legitimacy, and support for it, in public opinion," Spain said in a report seen by Reuters that will be debated by EU farm ministers on 1 June.
Direct subsidies paid to famers - which currently take up about 70% of the CAP budget - will therefore need to be more closely linked to these priorities in the reform, the report said.
But as direct subsidies account for over 25% of total income for EU farmers on average, "it would be difficult to maintain viable and sustainable [farming] operations without retaining, at least, the current level of support," it added.
This logic will be well received by farm ministers in countries such as France and Poland, who have said publicly that they will resist moves to cut CAP funding.
Others such as Britain and Sweden have long argued for a cut in the bloc's farm budget to fund other priorities, and Germany, traditionally an ally of France in CAP talks, may be more open to cuts this time round as it seeks to curb public expenditure.
Whether or not the budget is cut, it is inevitable that the main recipients now will see their funding decrease as the EU puts an end to inequalities that see famers in Latvia and Estonia receive about a third of what their counterparts in France and Germany get.
Some have predicted that this will lead France and others to top-up EU payments to farmers with "co-financing" from their national budgets, but this is something that the European Commission and many governments including Spain strongly oppose.
"The single market, an indispensable asset, is not compatible with introducing greater flexibility into common rules or national aids," the report concluded.
(EurActiv with Reuters.)
