EU farm ministers eye fairer direct payments

(BRNO) - European Union farm ministers on Tuesday agreed to seek a fairer system of direct payments to farmers as the EU's new farming policy comes into force in 2013.

Under the current common agricultural policy (CAP), farmers in countries that joined the EU in 2004 or later receive less money in direct payments from the EU budget than their counterparts in the EU-15 countries.

Czech farm minister Jakub Sebesta, whose country holds the EU presidency, said after the ministers' meeting in Brno that the EU had to "look for a model of direct payments that would be simple, flexible and easy to defend."

French farm minister Michel Barnier called for "equitable support" to farmers throughout the EU.

But farmers in Europe's former communist countries and other EU newcomers are likely to be upset with the outcome as they have been rallying for equal direct payments as of 2010.

Sebesta added that the ministers "agreed direct payments should in the future be assessed as complements to other tools, money spent on rural development, and be well coordinated with these tools."

This is in line with a so-called Health Check of the CAP approved by EU ministers last November, designed to update and streamline the policy, which proposes to cut direct payments in favour of the EU's Rural Development Fund.

Mariann Fischer Boel, EU commissioner for agriculture, said there were "different opinions" on the way the direct payments system should work in the future, but that "we are on the right track."

"I don't think you will find any member state that is not ready to have this discussion," she added.

Neil Parish, head of the European Parliament's agriculture committee, said directly it was necessary to "level the payments" after 2013.

"There are many different views on the CAP within the 27 member states, but we have to be sure as we move into the future that everybody is treated fairly and equally," said Parish.

Informal Meeting of Ministers for Agriculture and Fisheries