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RTÉ News
6 days ago
- Business
- RTÉ News
What do proposed CAP changes mean for Irish farmers?
EU financial supports for farmers could be radically overhauled under a draft proposal from the European Commission. a single National and Regional Partnerships fund from the start of the next EU budgetary cycle in 2028. Here we look at what the changes will mean to Irish and other EU farmers. What is the Common Agricultural Policy? The policy was introduced in 1962 and sought to provide affordable food and a fair standard of living for farmers in the then-European Economic Community. Its main aims are to support farmer incomes, ensure food security, protect the environment and rural development across the European Union. It is a significant part of the EU budget, amounting to nearly €400bn, which is around one-third of the entire budget. There are around 7 million beneficiaries of CAP payments across the EU. How do Irish farmers benefit from CAP? Irish farmers receive around €2 billion annually in CAP payments to help support the rural economy and food production, with around 120,000 farmers receiving payments. Farmers receive funding through CAP in different ways, including direct payments and through specific projects with environmental or production goals that offer financial rewards for achieving them. Projects under Ireland's CAP Strategic Plan include the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) and the LEADER Programme, which funds enterprise development. ACRES has a fund of €1.5 billion to help address biodiversity decline on farms, focusing on things like planting new hedgerows, native trees, and protecting watercourses. Over 50,000 farmers signed up for the scheme since it began in 2023. CAP payments are seen as crucial for the Irish agriculture sector as they help ensure family-run farms are viable. So what are the proposed changes? The proposal would mean CAP would no longer be a stand-alone fund within the EU budget from 2028 and would instead be merged with EU cohesion, migration and infrastructure funding. This could result in certain funding for agriculture within the EU budget no longer being ringfenced and see financial supports funnelled away from farming and into other areas. The draft Commission document proposes to guarantee "coherence by integrating the CAP interventions from the current two-funds structure under one single umbrella". The proposal suggests member states would have more power to reallocate funding "based on their specific needs rather than uniform allocations". The Commission says the funding merger will create "stronger synergies between policies". It says it will create a more flexible, crisis-responsive budget that better reflects the EU's shared priorities and reduce bureaucracy. Under the current system, CAP funding is divided into two pillars, direct payments to farmers and projects for rural development. However, the draft Commission document proposes to guarantee "coherence by integrating the CAP interventions from the current two-funds structure under one single umbrella". The proposal suggests member states would have more power to reallocate funding "based on their specific needs rather than uniform allocations". The Commission's plans also recommend CAP funding "should be focused on active farmers", meaning supports would be "targeted towards farmers who exercise agriculture as a principal activity". In addition, the proposals would increase supports for younger farmers significantly, with funding for the costs of establishing a new farm potentially rising from €100,000 to €300,000. What has been the reaction in Ireland? "Very concerning" is how the Irish Farmers' Association described the draft proposals. IFA President Francie Gorman said the Commission is "downgrading the importance of the CAP" and said it is being turned into an environmental and social policy. He described CAP as the cornerstone of the Irish agriculture sector. The group that represents dairy farmers is warning that the changes could "have an immediate inflationary effect on food prices". ICMSA President Denis Drennan said: "Any merging of the CAP pillars as a pretext towards further reduction in already inadequate direct payments to farmer primary-producers will have an immediate inflationary effect on the costs of food." "It's utterly bizarre – in light of the anxiety being cause by rising food prices – for the Commission to consider cutting the very payments to farmers that were at least going some small way to preventing the full cost of food production being borne by consumers," he added. While Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon said that the proposals are "just the beginning of a protracted process". Mr Heydon said member states will start the process of agreeing on a "general approach" to the proposals and will take part in "line-by-line negotiations" with the EU Parliament and the EU Commission. He said his priority during the process will be to "ensure that the legislation finally agreed reflects Ireland's concerns, and provides certainty and stability for farmers".
RTÉ News
7 days ago
- Business
- RTÉ News
European Commission to propose merging CAP funding with other funds
The European Commission is set to propose merging Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funding with other funds, in a radical overhaul of how farmers receive financial supports from the European Union budget. Draft documents of the proposals, seen by RTÉ News, indicate that from the start of the next EU budgetary cycle in 2028, the commission plans to pool dedicated agricultural and rural financial supports into a single National and Regional Partnerships fund. The proposal would mean CAP would no longer be a stand-alone fund within the EU budget but would instead be merged with EU cohesion, migration, and infrastructure funding. This could result in certain funding for agriculture within the EU budget no longer being ringfenced and see financial supports funnelled away from farming and into other areas. In the draft, the commission argues the change would allow for "stronger synergies between policies", and create a more flexible, crisis-responsive budget that better reflects the EU's shared priorities. The commission will outline its proposals to MEPs later today for the next EU budget - known as the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) - which comes into effect in 2028. Irish farmers receive around €2 billion annually in CAP payments to help support the rural economy and food production. This funding is divided into two pillars - the first comprising direct payments to farmers, with the second focusing on rural development. However, the draft commission document proposes to guarantee "coherence by integrating the CAP interventions from the current two-funds structure under one single umbrella". The proposal suggests member states would have more power to reallocate funding "based on their specific needs rather than uniform allocations". Some Irish MEPs who have seen the leaked commission proposals say they risk CAP funding to farmers being considerably reduced, with some estimates suggesting they could see a drop of up to 30%. Fine Gael MEP Maria Walsh, who is a member of the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee, said they "highlight a real risk of the already insufficient CAP budget being further decreased. "While the relevance of some pillar-two tools - from farm advisory services to LEADER programmes - is maintained in the proposal, the funding is uncertain. "Without guaranteed investment, our rural communities and farmers will suffer. For example, the ringfenced funding for LEADER programmes has been abolished - I will be fighting within the Agriculture Committee to reverse this decision," she added. The commission's plans also recommend CAP funding "should be focused on active farmers", meaning supports would be "targeted towards farmers who exercise agriculture as a principal activity". In addition, the proposals would increase supports for younger farmers significantly, with funding for the costs of establishing a new farm potentially rising from €100,000 to €300,000. Independent Ireland MEP Ciaran Mullooly said he is "alarmed and concerned" by the reported proposals "to scrap a fund with millions of euros of Pillar 2 rural development grants. "These grants provide a lifeline to many parts of the midlands, west, north west and north east," he said. He added that "the Commissioner is proceeding against the advice of all farmers and community groups with a single fund to be merged with cohesion funds paid to member states. "The scale of cuts in the budget being proposed are absolutely disastrous for Irish farmers." 'Big battle ahead' - IFA The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) has described the draft proposals as "very concerning". IFA President Francie Gorman said: "it is clear that the EU Commission is downgrading the importance of the CAP and food production to allow for greater spending elsewhere. "The CAP is being turned into an environmental and social policy. Support for farmers who are producing the most food is being consistently reduced. "At a time when Ireland is a net contributor to the overall EU budget, this level of investment in every parish takes on even more significance," he said. "CAP has been the cornerstone of the multi-billion export sector that underpins thousands of jobs in regions far from the urban centres. "There is a big battle ahead to retrieve a coherent policy from what the EU Commission is proposing," he added. 'Beginning of a protracted process' Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon has said that the commission's budget proposals are "just the beginning of a protracted process". The minster said: "Member States will, through the Council of Ministers, begin the process of agreeing a general approach to the commission's proposals, before engaging in line-by-line negotiations with the EU Parliament and the EU Commission. "This will take some time, and I fully expect the progression of these proposals to be a significant feature of Ireland's Presidency of the EU Council in the second half of next year. "My priority throughout will be to ensure that the legislation finally agreed reflects Ireland's concerns, and provides certainty and stability for farmers," the minister added. Once the commission sets out its proposed EU budget, this will start a process of debate and negotiation that will ultimately lead to a final vote on the next budget for the bloc, that would begin in 2028. Ireland is expected to play an important role in this process, especially regarding CAP funding, given that we will hold the rolling six-month EU presidency for the second half of 2026.
Euronews
14-07-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Leak: EU Commission plans to merge agricultural and regional funds
A major shake-up in how the EU manages farming subsidies appears to be underway with the European Commission planning to unify delivery of its two largest budget items—cohesion funds and agricultural subsidies—under a single channel, according to a leaked draft of the EU's next long-term budget seen by Euronews. Crucially, the proposal would eliminate the CAP's 'second pillar', which currently funds rural development programmes. These programmes support agro-environmental initiatives, farm investments, and the development of rural communities. 'The new framework guarantees coherence by integrating the CAP interventions from the current two-funds structure under one single umbrella. Such alignment brings further flexibility and simplification,' the leaked document states. While farmers' associations—many of which protested against similar proposals last May—are likely to fiercely oppose the removal of the rural development pillar, the most transformative element may be the planned merger of CAP and cohesion policy. Rumours of such a move have circulated for months. The draft outlines a new mechanism tentatively called 'National and Regional Partnerships', which would be supported by a single fund. According to the Commission, this approach 'will help better exploit synergies between the policies covered by the scope of this initiative and hence support their delivery.' 'By bringing cohesion policy and the Common Agricultural Policy under a single programming approach, Member States will have a wider toolbox to address the challenges faced by farmers and communities in rural areas,' the draft notes. This expanded toolbox would include infrastructure development, access to digital, water, and energy services, as well as support for skills development and generational renewal. However, the proposal could face strong resistance. CAP and cohesion policy serve fundamentally different roles: the former provides direct subsidies to farmers, while the latter focuses on reducing regional disparities through investment. Many in the agricultural sector, including several EU agriculture ministers and Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen, have expressed a desire to maintain the CAP's current two-pillar structure and standalone budget. This is a developing story.
