Chief Executive Graham Wynne has issued a clarion call to government ministers taking on the monster that is agriculture policy reform.
Speaking on Monday, he urged the UK Treasury to look less at the bill and more at the benefits its cash contributions to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) could reap if funds were spent more wisely.
Bargaining over reform will be amongst topics dominating EU politics over the next five years, culminating in a new CAP in 2013.
About 75 per cent - £33.7 billion – of CAP money is now spent on subsidies to farmers dwarfing the £9.2 billion allocated for rural development – funds for helping farmers diversify and wildlife conservation.
The RSPB wants some of this money switched, to substantially increase funds for green farming schemes.
Graham Wynne, together with Farming Minister Lord Rooker and Shaun Spiers of the CPRE, spoke at the House of Lords on Monday at an event to launch Beyond the Pillars, a report published by 19 members of the environment coalition, Wildlife and Countryside Link. The report details reforms that could make Europe’s farming more sustainable.
Mr Wynne called on the government to make it clear that its reform plans were genuine and that it did not simply want to cut its CAP costs. “There is a rumour, and an assumption, that the UK is in favour of cuts as much as reform, an assumption that the Treasury wants a much lower bill,” he said.
“We are desperate to keep expenditure up and desperately unhappy that at least three quarters of CAP money is not linked to public objectives.”
Lord Rooker warned that this year’s ‘health check’ of the CAP – the major stepping-stone to the 2013 changes – “is not about reform.”
He said that the UK government wanted the CAP reformed but that “there will be an intention to reduce the budget. The French want to take forward some aspects of reform but that’s not really what we are looking for. Bilateral discussions are underway with states keen on genuine reform, protecting wildlife and landscapes.”
Lord Rooker feared the government would receive many complaints if wildlife and landscapes disappeared because ministers had failed to protect them. And he urged: “You have got to keep shouting loud and long to make sure there is no back-sliding by administrations.”
You can read Beyond the Pillars here