Irish farmers stand to lose £150 million in income cuts under the Agenda 2000 proposals put forward by the European Commission President, Mr Jacques Santer, the IFA said yesterday.
The IFA president, Mr John Donnelly, urged the Government to wake up to the far-reaching implications of the proposals to amend the Common Agricultural Policy. The association wanted to initiate a debate on the issues involved for Irish agriculture, EU structural funds and the wider economy, he told an IFA forum in Dublin yesterday.
He warned that without extra EU budget resources, the cost of enlargement would be borne by the existing net beneficiaries of EU transfers, and the impact of Agenda 2000 would be more severe on Ireland than on any other member-state.
"The fact that no new resources are being proposed for the EU budget to cope with the first round of enlargement, including five east European states and Cyprus, is totally unrealistic," he said.
"The experience of East Germany, where massive budget resources were required to support development for a population of just 20 million, goes to prove than an EU enlargement to include 63 million people cannot be achieved on the cheap." Mr Donnelly said the sub-text in the Santer package was that resources needed for a new round of CAP reform and structural funds for existing member-states would be diverted to pay for EU enlargement; sufficient resources to achieve a smooth enlargement process were not being committed.
He said the Santer proposal to cut some farm prices to world levels was far more costly than that being operated at present and would require a much larger CAP budget than is being proposed.
"The re-nationalisation of agriculture support is creeping back into the European agenda so that wealthier member-states can supplement the CAP with direct payments to support their own farmers' incomes. This has serious implications for Irish farmers and the Irish Exchequer," he said.
"For both the structural funds and for some elements of the CAP, lower rates of EU funding will increase pressure for higher Exchequer expenditure, particularly in the areas of infrastructure, environmental investment and training post-1999," he said.
The president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, Mr Frank Allen, called on all involved in the dairy sector to start preparing for the problems they will face after the Santer reform.
He said recent price increases paid by co-ops to farmers indicated the strength and confidence of the dairy industry, and the sector could cope with the proposed EU reforms.