The Farmers’ Union of Wales are today calling for a cross government agricultural summit to address the perceived slow progress in developing plans for agriculture as Britain's leave the European Union.
Speaking at the Royal Welsh Show, Europe's largest Agricultural show, the Union President Glyn Roberts said: “Planning Brexit has been going on in a relatively disjointed fashion for many months and while we are certainly pleased with the very good progress that Welsh government meetings have made, there has been slow progress on critical issues due to a lack of engagement between the UK and Welsh governments.”
The FUW sees 3 major phases in the UK’s exit from the European Union: the Article 50 process, which has already started and the constitutional issues that need to be resolved. The second phase of leaving the EU when trade relations will be to the fore and the third being the long term changes that can then be made only once trade relationships are understood.
“We appear to be focusing all our energy on the latter phases, whilst ignoring the critical constitutional arrangements that need to be established by the UK government and all devolved administrations. They need to be working collaboratively to develop a solution,” stressed Glyn Roberts.
The FUW today met with the First Minister of Wales and 2 Secretaries of State from the UK government as well as Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs Lesley Griffiths.
“A cross Government Agricultural summit is absolutely essential in order to progress the vital constitutional issues that need to be addressed before powers are repatriated from Brussels to London.
“Whilst there are arguments for powers to be repatriated and held in London, there are also clear options to return them immediately to the devolved nations, within an agricultural trade framework that will not disrupt trade negotiations in any way,” said Glyn Roberts.
He added saying that: “We are genuinely encouraged by all we are hearing in our bilateral discussions with government ministers. There is an awful lot of common ground between our aspirations and government statements. We now ask that they come together to address the big domestic political issues as soon as possible.”