On the same day that senior American politicians announced the US Farm bill will be delayed until after November, by which time legislation introduced under the current bill will have ended, European Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos has acknowledged that reform of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy will not be completed by the 2014 deadline, the point at which it should be implemented.

On a visit to Scotland on Thursday, Mr Ciolos told a meeting of government and industry leaders that many key reforms will not come into effect until 2015 and urged them to think of 2014 as a “transitional” changeover period.

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Ciolos also took the opportunity to announce further concessions to the farming lobby on the controversial subject of ‘greening measures.’ Under Commission proposals, 7 per cent of land would have to be taken out of production and set aside to benefit the natural environment; a proportion of direct payments would also be dependent on farmers fulfilling certain environmental criteria.

More flexible approach to set aside

However, on Thursday Mr Ciolos said that the set aside could be organised on a group or parish basis, and not limited to a single holding as had previously been thought. He also suggested ineligible land could count towards the set aside to reduce the impact on production, which had featured strongly in industry criticism of the reforms. Farming industry representatives welcomed the announcements, which they said represented a move “towards greater flexibility”, having criticised previous proposals as too rigid to implement effectively.

Although he announced some concessions on greening measures on Thursday, the Commissioner remained stalwart in the face of calls for a menu-based approach, such as that which are currently employed in environmental stewardship schemes. Calls for member states to choose suitable environmental measures from a list of options have been roundly condemned by environmentalists, though Scottish farming unions have been extremely active in pushing for this approach and finding support from other like-minded groups in Member States including Sweden.

Ciolos dismissed the calls, stating he wanted to ensure measures are implemented equally throughout Europe. He reiterated that greening measures are the result of a desire for greater environmental and social consideration in the CAP on the part of the European public; the CAP accounts for over 40 per cent of total EU spending.

Further moves on the policy reforms will not be made until finance ministers have agreed on a budget for the policy later this year. Progress is not now expected until January at the earliest. The commissioner said he remains hopeful that a deal on the CAP will be negotiated in early 2013, under the Irish presidency of the EU.

Commenting on the meeting, NFU Scotland president Nigel miller said, “Setting the EU budget is crucial to progress on CAP reform and we were reassured to hear how positive Commissioner Ciolos remains that a budget deal will be agreed in November.  That would allow CAP reform discussions to really move through the gears in 2013.

“Given that Scotland’s budget share – particularly within Pillar Two - falls well short of the EU average, we would look to the EU Commission to deliver on its convergence priority and, working with Westminster, look to ensure Scotland has a larger rural development fund going forward.”

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