Subsidies under discussion
More say for Member States in new CAP
In the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the European Member States are assigned more authority and implementation tasks. This is stated in a proposal, which the European Commission (EC) will present on Wednesday 29 November. The EC's proposal is already in the hands of the newspaper Trouw.
The CAP will enter a new phase in about 3 years. Brussels then wants to withdraw its hands from agricultural policy and attribute the tasks to the European member states (for example in the field of implementation and supervision). Member States would also be allowed to issue fines themselves. In the current CAP, this is mainly located in Brussels. The consequence of this is that there is hardly any room for local conditions.
Dividing subsidies differently
Land subsidies are also under discussion. The agricultural budget currently stands at €50 billion, the majority of which is earmarked as income support for farmers. A number of European parties believe that income support is outdated. VVD member Halbe Zijlstra, Minister of Foreign Affairs, recently expressed his wish to make cutbacks in the European agricultural budget. He wants to divide the agricultural money among other sectors.
The EC wants to keep income support to farmers intact. However, the committee would like to divide the funds differently, Trouw writes. Currently 20% of farmers receive about 80% of the budget. The EC wants to counter this by setting a subsidy ceiling of a maximum of €100.000 per company per year.
Wouter Job
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