Memorandum submitted by the Ulster Farmers'
Union
IMPLEMENTATION OF CAP REFORM IN THE UK
In response to the Press Notice issued by the
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee on 31 October 2003
which invited written evidence to assist the Committee with its
Inquiry into the above, I apologise for the slight delay in forwarding
this response but the Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU) would like to
make the following comments:
1. The recently agreed reform of the Common
Agricultural Policy (CAP) represents one of the most radical changes
which the agriculture industry, not only in Northern Ireland but
throughout the entire European Union, has had to address for several
generations;
2. This Reform will have an enormous impact
on the future structure and economics of the agriculture industry;
3. While the Ulster Farmers' Union has yet
to finalise its position on the implementation of CAP Reform,
a consensus on a number of the strategic issues has already emerged:
(a) the provision of significant regional
discretion within the agreement is fully supported;
(b) the implementation of "decoupling"
in full across all sectors at the earliest opportunity, including
the dairy sector, is supported;
(c) the UFU's position on the exact method
of "decoupling" has yet to be finalised;
(d) the introduction of a "national
envelope" in any sector is not supported;
(e) the extension of the rural development
regulation is welcomed but the use of any of the additional options
now available should be avoided until the 2007-13 programming
period of the EU's Rural Development Regulation to ensure that
funding from existing schemes is not transferred.
4. Additional Government consultations in
Northern Ireland are expected at the beginning of next year on
both "Cross Compliance" and "Modulation".
These issues are also extremely critical.
Ulster Farmers' Union
December 2003
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