Scotland’s farming minister yesterday admitted he faces a challenging timescale to get the new Cap in place for it to start as scheduled in 2015.
Europe’s institutions – the council of ministers, parliament and commission – finally concluded their outstanding negotiations on financial issues to complete the Cap reform jigsaw late on Tuesday.
The deal paves the way for the process of writing the legislative legal text to implement the new policy and the transition arrangements to continue rural development payments in 2014. But that can only happen after the parliament and council formally vote on the overall package.
Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead, speaking exclusively to the Press and Journal in Edinburgh, accepted a lot would have to be packed into the next 15 months to get the new Cap up and running in Scotland.
That includes settling internal UK budgets, launching the Scottish Government’s consultation on how the new Cap will be implemented in Scotland and translating the European text into Scottish legislation.
Mr Lochhead said the latest agreement in Brussels did not appear to alter Scotland’s vision for the new Cap, although he and officials would spend the coming days examining the fine detail of it. He still expects his Cap consultation to be launched before the end of the year.
The biggest wrangling is likely to be over the Cap budget split as the Scottish Government is already laying claim to all the extra £50million destined to be paid to the UK between 2014-19.
Mr Lochhead said the cash was the solely result of Scotland’s existing poor Cap allocation being topped up and every penny of that should go north of the border.
“I raised the issue (on the UK budget) with Owen Paterson (the UK environment secretary) earlier this week in Brussels. He appeared to indicate that decisions are imminent. But clearly we require a budget allocation which provides a just outcome for Scottish agriculture,” he added.
Mr Lochhead said the process of implementing the new Cap was already a year behind schedule. He added: “It would have been a lot better all round if a deal had been reached earlier.” But he accepted getting the right package was more important.
European Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos paid tribute to ministers and MEPs for agreeing the necessary compromises to allow a final deal. He hopes both institutions will move swiftly to vote through the package, adding the transition arrangements were important as it would give them greater certainty for the coming year.
It was the parliament’s historic first formal involvement in the Cap decision process. Agriculture committee chairman Paolo de Castro said it was proud to have managed the complex reform in a short time.
The political agreement reached in June ensures that subsidy payments in future only go to active farmers, makes 30% of payments conditional on farmers becoming greener through forcing the majority to grow three crops, maintain permanent pasture and set-aside land for so-called ecological focus areas.
Coupled support, which is linked to production, will ensure the continuation of a payment to retain Scotland’s suckler cow herd.