As a result of a rotational change in Presidency of the EU a new series of discussions have been initiated by the Netherlands - with the main focus being the next CAP programme period and its simplification.
This news has been described as ‘essential’ and ‘most welcome’ by the Farmers’ Union of Wales.
The complexity of the current CAP rules and the requirement to provide sketch maps have been a nightmare for farmers and all those assisting them with filling out and submitting their Basic Payment Scheme forms (BPS).
FUW staff worked tirelessly in the run up to May 15, dealing with the new regulations, and the FUW has expressed every sympathy to Welsh Government staff who are now under the same pressures.
FUW President Glyn Roberts said: “Over the past five years both the European Commission and the Welsh Government have, it is hoped, learned important lessons in terms of planning for the future and we welcome the move by the new EU Presidency to kick-off talks on the post 2020 programme early.”
In its 2016 Welsh Assembly Election Manifesto, the FUW highlighted that the European Commission (EC) failed to secure agreement for its proposed reforms in time to implement the scheme in 2014, as should have been the case, while the complexity of the regulations finally passed meant the new Commissioner – Phil Hogan – had little choice but to make CAP simplification an immediate priority.
Despite the twelve month delay to the CAP implementation date, the Welsh Government’s failure to heed the FUW’s warnings by preparing for the new CAP early on led to two legal challenges and limited options in terms of the final payment models which could be practically implemented in Wales.
Mr Roberts added that “As such, we are left with an imperfect Welsh Basic Payment Scheme which fails to meet the key aspirations agreed by government and industry, and we also have unnecessary and costly levels of bureaucracy which contradict the original principles agreed by the European Commission and Parliament.
“The clear lesson for the EC is that, in light of co-decision making, it is essential that discussions on the priorities and options available under the next CAP must be started early – a concern already raised by the FUW with Commissioner Hogan.”
Meanwhile, the Welsh Government must also look beyond the current CAP and undertake work early on to identify those priorities and options which best suit Wales’ agricultural industry.
It is vital that concerns over whether the UK will remain a part of the EU should not be used to justify procrastination and we must feed into discussions at an EU level and help shape the next CAP.
Moreover, such work may also inform policies should exit from the EU become inevitable.
In light of this, the Union would urge the incoming Welsh Government to undertake detailed work to examine the possible outcomes of adopting a broad range of Welsh basic payment models post 2020, undertake mapping work in order to identify those areas which might be used as the basis for future payment models, and investigate the benefits or otherwise of multi-tiered payment systems akin to the Redistributive and Tir Mynydd models in order to feed into discussions at an EU level.