EU FARM ministers have agreed on a method of the redistribution of Common Agricultural Policy (Cap) funds which favoured Ireland’s view, Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney has claimed.
Following his first official engagement as Minister at farm talks in Brussels, he said he had strongly defended Ireland’s current allocation of Cap funds.
He said he had supported the agreement on the broad approach to Cap reform reached by a majority of ministers on how funding would be reallocated when the policy was reformed.
Mr Coveney said that while he was not happy with every detail in the agreement he felt it had usefully advanced the Irish position in these negotiations.
The talks are expected to continue for another two years.
The council agreed by qualified majority to a set of formal conclusions which set out its thinking on the shape of future Cap reform. Work will now continue on translating this into detailed legislative proposals, on which agreement is unlikely until late 2012 at the earliest.
The Minister, on a formal St Patrick’s Day visit to Paris, had met with his French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire, and they issued a joint communique on EU farm policy reform and the Mercosur trade talks with four South American countries.
This joint approach highlighted the strategic importance of agriculture to their own countries and for the future of Europe as a whole.
They agreed to work together to ensure the reform of Cap delivered an ambitious policy, adequately funded to reinforce and develop the strategic importance of agriculture to the EU.