Lyon roars as EU doffs cap to plans for reform

AS WAS widely expected, the European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg yesterday gave overwhelming support to the common agricultural policy reform proposals put forward by Scottish MEP George Lyon.

Commenting on the result of the vote, which saw 444 MEPs in favour and 88 against, Lyon said he was delighted that the parliament's "grand coalition" had backed the reform package outlined in his report.

"The reformed and renewed CAP must address the challenges of the new century, putting sustainability, fairness, green growth and innovation at its heart," he said.

"We have resisted attempts by some to water down the package of reform and the report has emerged with a strong mandate for long-overdue change."

Lyon said that while the report was based on Europe, he believed it was also a good deal for Scotland.

"The strong stance taken by the European Parliament will shape the debate and set the agenda for reform," he said.

Lyon listed the ten guiding principles within the accepted paper. Food security has to be at the heart of CAP. There has to be no renationalisation of the CAP. There has to be strong support for LFA farming. A fair distribution of single farm payment budgets to member states is required. There will be a move from historic to area-based payments by 2020.

In addition, the European Union will bring in robust action to give farmers fair trade. Agri-environmental schemes have to be available to all farmers. There should be simplification and greater transparency of CAP, along with a more proportional penalty system and action taken to put an end to the "slipper" brigade - those who collect subsidies without actively farming their land.

But the intricacies of making decisions within the EU are now so complex that yesterday's vote is merely a step along a path that could yet take a major turn or two. The next move is a paper from EU agricultural commissioner Dacian Ciolos, which will come out in November and which is expected to use the parliamentary paper as a tenplate.

In response, Ciolos thanked Lyon for bringing forward the proposals, which he described as very constructive, and confirmed that the main issues would be taken into account in his report.

Another of the Scottish MEPs, Alyn Smith, described yesterday's result as "solid enough. It does state my own priority that the purpose of the CAP is to produce food. It is not a jobs policy, it is not an economic policy, it is not an environmental policy - the fact that Europe's citizens have been able to get used to cheap and available food is part of our national security."

However, he was worried that with the large number of differing priorities within the package then the budget negotiations would be more and more complex.

"With a number of member states, including the UK, wanting to end direct payments to farmers, we'll have our work cut out for us as the debate moves on."

NFU Scotland also welcomed yesterday's vote but policy director Scott Walker was also concerned about the size of the CAP budget.

"While the pressure on the EU and its member states' budgets is greater than ever, it is also more important than ever that decision makers recognise the value of the CAP in providing EU citizens with a secure supply of affordable and safe food," he said.

"In order to achieve this, the level of the budget will be critical so it is good news that the parliament has said that the CAP budget should be at least maintained at its current level."