Northern Ireland Protocol: Withdrawal Agreement Joint Committee Decisions and declarations of 17 December 2020 Contents

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2Agricultural subsidies9

Overview

14.As required by the Withdrawal Agreement, the Joint Committee governing the operation of the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol agreed on the maximum level of agricultural subsidies that may be provided to farmers, and the minimum percentage of that which must be classed as ‘Green Box’ (environmentally sustainable) support under world trade rules.10 The Joint Committee also agreed an amount of fisheries support to be exempted from EU state aid rules.11

15.Annex 6 of the Protocol sets out how the total level of support, and the Green Box proportion, should be calculated. This is based on recent Northern Irish receipts under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), as well as the current Green Box proportion in the CAP. There is provision for the amounts to be re-calculated in the future as changes are made to both EU and UK farming policy.

16.The Decision under consideration provides for a baseline of £382.2m of annual agricultural support to farmers in Northern Ireland to be exempt from EU state aid rules. There is also provision for up to £25.03m of unspent allocation in any given year to be rolled forward to the subsequent year. In addition, an extra £6.8m of further support is able to be deployed in any year where crisis conditions are met. These are set out in the Decision, such as a situation of serious market disturbance directly attributable to a loss in consumer confidence due to public, animal or plant health and disease risks. The Decision provides that at least 83% of the support must be classed as ‘Green Box’ expenditure.

17.Finally, the agreement provides for an exemption for nearly £16.93m of fisheries spending from EU state aid rules across each five-year period, with a maximum spend of £4.01m in any given year.

18.In his Explanatory Memorandum, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office (Rt Hon. Michael Gove MP) notes that the agreement on fisheries spending corrects an anomaly because the Protocol as it stands did not carve fisheries spending out of EU state aid rules. The Decision, he notes, outlines categories of spend in this regard which are not eligible to be caught within the new cap, including the construction of new fishing vessels or the importation of fishing vessels or the permanent cessation of fishing activities.

Conclusions

19.As is the case with the other Decisions adopted by the Joint Committee, we are gravely concerned that the Government afforded Parliament no opportunity to scrutinise its approach to this Decision before it was agreed. We are raising those matters elsewhere in this Report and have no specific issues to raise concerning the content of this Decision.