Measures to ensure a more straightforward and flexible system are among the priorities for the Irish Government while negotiating the EU's next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon has outlined the Government's priorities for post-2027 CAP negotiations.
He said Ireland will be seeking a CAP that will provide straightforward measures farmers can understand and implement and allow EU member states more freedom to better target measures to their own circumstances.
In addition, the Government said more flexibility is needed to respond to new and emerging approaches and to explore new funding streams, which should be additional and complementary to CAP.
Meanwhile, Minister Heydon said Ireland will be seeking an adequate CAP budget and an appropriate balance between all elements of sustainability; economic, environmental and social.
Ireland's current CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027 (CSP) has a budget of €9.8 billion, including €2.28bn in national funds, over five years.
The future of farm supports will be shaped by two major policy proposals to be published later this year - firstly the publication of the EU budget, known as the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), and subsequently the publication of proposals for a new CAP post-2027.
Ireland's agri-food sector is the country's most important indigenous industry, employing over 169,000 people and supporting €19bn worth of exports.
"Experiences over the last few years, from the Covid pandemic to the war in Ukraine, to the current trade tensions with the US, have underlined the vital importance of this sector.
"Food supply chains have proved resilient, but we should not take our food, or the people who produce it, for granted. And CAP is crucial to the sector’s resilience and competitiveness," Minister Heydon said.
Call to increase CAP funding or risk €250bn shortfall
Earlier, Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Cowen said a failure to significantly increase funding for the EU's next Common Agricultural Policy could erode over half of its value by 2034.
In his position paper on the future of CAP, Mr Cowen, a member of the EU's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, calls for a major increase in CAP funding in the 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework, adding that not adjusting for inflation could lead to a €250bn shortfall in its value.
He said that although the CAP accounts for around a third of the EU's budget, it has been subject to a steady decline.
"While member states’ contributions to the EU budget rose to 1.08% of GNI (Gross National Income) in the 2021-2027 period, CAP allocations declined by 5% in nominal terms and by 12% in real terms.
"This downward trend - coupled with rising input costs, inflation, extreme weather conditions and increased regulatory demands - has placed increasing pressure on Europe’s farmers," Mr Cowen said.
"In real terms, our failure to adjust the CAP budget for inflation could reduce its value by 54% by 2034 - a staggering €250 billion shortfall," he added.
Mr Cowen said that in "a new era of heightened security concerns, food security must be recognised as a core pillar of Europe's strategic defence, with agriculture deserving a protected share of broader security spending".
In his paper, the Midlands North-West MEP also calls for the creation of a third, standalone environmental pillar within CAP that would offer "meaningful rewards and incentives to farmers who adopt voluntary environmental schemes and sustainable innovations".
In addition, Mr Cowen highlights generational renewal as an "existential threat" to farming and rural communities.
Mr Cowen is Renew Europe’s shadow rapporteur for the European Parliament’s report on 'The Future of Agriculture and the Post-2027 CAP'.
The final compromise text on the next CAP is expected later this year.
In February, the EU outlined its vision for agriculture and at that time said CAP will be "simpler and more targeted, with support more directed towards farmers who actively engage in food production, with a particular focus on young farmers and those farming in areas of natural constraints".
