CAP merging proposals slammed as ‘creative accounting'
Denis Drennan, the association's president, said he had 'little doubt' that the 'manoeuvre' was being employed to 'disguise an effective reduction in one or both funds'.
'The recent comments by commission officials that seemed to indicate a renewal of interest and concern around the security of the EU's food supply can now be discounted as the accountants and bean counters resume control ad overall direction,' Drennan said.
'We have [the] commission…telling everyone that they realise now the importance of funding the farming that feeds the population, while simultaneously and deliberately merging the two farmer and rural-related funds as a precursor to a grandiose announcement of the new total, as if the funding allocated had increased,' he added.
'The whole exercise is as transparent as it is cynical.
Drennan said that the CAP is central to Irish and EU agriculture, and that CAP funding has been undermined in successive reforms.
'The EU has a decision to make, whether to protect its food production base that is central to EU food security through a dedicated budget, or abandon that funding system and allow the dismantling of its food production base,' the ICMSA president said.
'That's the choice and the government must clarify its position on this matter and declare it a red line, in the [EU budget] negotiations,' he added.
CAP single fund
The comments from the ICMSA come after farm organisation protests in Dublin and Brussels against the changes, which, it is understood, will be formally announced by the commission on July.
A protest in Dublin yesterday (Tuesday, May 20) was organised by the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) and the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS).
The IFA has warned the commission against 'stripping away the CAP budget in favour of a single fund approach to the EU budget'.
The president of ICOS, Edward Carr, has also stressed that CAP is the 'foundation of a sustainable and competitive farming and agri-food sector in Ireland and Europe'.
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