The European Parliament has announced it will delay deciding its final position on Common Agricultural Policy reforms until the EU budget for 2014 – 2020 is announced. The delay means no decision will now be made until December this year at the earliest.

MEPs stated that they cannot make a decision on CAP reform until the total amount of available budgetary resources is known to them. The Parliament had been expected to announce its position this autumn, but it now appears unlikely that a position will be decided and announced this year as budgetary negotiations are unlikely to be completed at the December summit where they are intended to be signed.

CAP reforms are due to come into effect at the beginning of January 2014, however, there has been speculation that implementation may now be delayed by one or even two years. Agriculture secretary Jim Paice has suggested that a one year delay is now expected.

Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron spoke out against the delay, which he said is affecting farmers, who already face uncertainty over what impacts reforms will have on their single payments and businesses.

Defra has moved to reassure farmers that the single payment scheme will go ahead in the event of a delay in implementing CAP reforms.

In the interim, Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos has announced the Commission will public a number of explanatory notes in summer this year to offer more detail on the relatively broad policies announced in the Commission’s official proposals last year.

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