Mairead McGuinness Fine Gael MEP

The demands of auditors rather than the needs of farmers and the food industry are driving reform of the CAP, according to Mairead McGuinness, Ireland East Fine Gael MEP who was last week voted MEP of the Year for agriculture by fellow MEPs.

She said today: ”The footprint of the EU Court of Auditors is heavily imprinted in the proposals for reform of the direct payment regime, in particular the demands for a move towards a more uniform payment, with fairer distribution between member states and between farmers.”

The MEP says the Court of Auditors Special report on the SPS (Single Payment Scheme) published this year was highly critical of certain aspects of the scheme and made specific recommendations to the Commission about ways to rectify these issues.

“These recommendations are, effectively, using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. In the process compliant producers, the majority of farmers, are being hit and it could lead to unintended and undesirable consequences.”

McGuinness said the Court is critical in particular of the scheme which allows someone with little or no farming activity to claim support.

“Such a situation should not be allowed to prevail but finding a definition of an active farmer at EU level under the reform proposals may not work either,” she warned.

Some of the very detailed proposals on “greening” which would link payments to delivery of specific measures, including crop diversification, do not make any sense.

“Forcing farmers to have three crops, with upper and lower percentage limits is overly bureaucratic and will restrict the individual farmers’ freedom to farm.

“This crop diversification idea is more about the ability of the system to control and monitor than it is about the potential environmental benefits expected to flow from it.

“Some more beneficial practices from an environmental perspective were ruled out because of the inability of the system to control them.

“In essence it is the demands of the audit process that is driving CAP reform and this in alarming.

“It is very troubling that the six recommendations of the Court of Auditors are being taken up by the Commission in its reform proposals, without any due regard to their practical implications at farm level.

“When we are dealing with public funds it is important that there are checks and balances and controls,” McGuinness said.

“But these must not inhibit or impose unnecessary restrictions on the day to day farming activities of Irish and EU farmers.”

The Court of Auditors has called for payments to be based on current farming conditions in different regions.

“However it calls for such a transition to be made in a way that could avoid undesirable effects such as high land and lease prices,” McGuinness said.

“These are extremely difficult reforms with serious implications for the agriculture and food sectors if we do not tackle some of the more bureaucratic measures in the package,” she concluded.