The European Commission want member states to establish a proper farmer pension scheme, a well-placed source in Brussels has told the Irish Farmers Journal. <\/p>\n
A proposal for the next CAP presented by the European Commission last year proposed that older farmers in receipt of a pension should not receive farm payments. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s in our proposal and the proposal is being discussed now by member states and by the European Parliament. It has raised quite a lot of criticism so it\u2019s quite possible that there may be some changes,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n
Generational renewal<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cFor us, it has all to do with generational renewal; we see farmers clinging on to their land and not handing over to the next generation.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we wanted to do is that they should no longer be eligible for only a part of the farm payment \u2013 those that are based on the surface, on the hectares,\u201d they said \u2013 essentially the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS).<\/p>\n \u201cEverything else they can continue to receive. <\/p>\n \u201cOf course, if somebody doesn\u2019t have any pension at all, they should also continue to receive [payments], but where you have a national pension, then we think agricultural subsidies are not a social security system.\u201d<\/p>\n Brussels wants \u201cproductive agriculture, active farmers\u201d, they said, adding that it is difficult to see how the proposal will play out. <\/p>\n \u201cWe want to incentivise, we want that member states set up a proper farmer pension system and then the farmer at 68 or 70 has a pension that allows him or her to continue basically. The agriculture policy is not the social policy,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n Retirement measure<\/strong><\/p>\n When asked if the Commission would introduce a farm retirement measure in the next CAP, they said: \u201cWe can\u2019t do that from Brussels but we would like it to come around\u201d.<\/p>\n This appears to put the ball in Ireland\u2019s court in terms of its plan for the next CAP, with any decision on a retirement scheme a decision for the Irish Government.<\/p>\n Next CAP budget <\/p>\n It is expected that the Cypriot presidency will report in April with the likely budget for the next CAP and it is understood that it wants a discussion on the numbers in June. This would occur just as Ireland is poised to take the reins and assume the presidency for the second half of the year.<\/p>\n A decision on the next budget is expected in December. <\/p>\n \u201cOur plan A is that there is agreement on the numbers in December. Then agreement on the sectoral legislation, CAP regulation, Common Markets Organisation \u2013 early on in 2027. <\/p>\n \u201cThen the [new CAP] plans are being done, plans are submitted by summer, the Commission screens the plans, negotiates perhaps to improve certain things, and it goes to council for approval towards the end of 2027. <\/p>\n \u201cSo, the farmer that takes the decision of what to plant in spring knows what to expect. If that plan doesn\u2019t work, I think we need to think about a transition,\u201d the source said. <\/p>\n The European Commission want member states to establish a proper farmer pension scheme, a well-placed source in Brussels has told the Irish Farmers Journal. <\/p>\n A proposal for the next CAP presented by the European Commission last year proposed that older farmers in receipt of a pension should not receive farm payments. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s in our proposal and the proposal is being discussed now by member states and by the European Parliament. It has raised quite a lot of criticism so it\u2019s quite possible that there may be some changes,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n Generational renewal<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cFor us, it has all to do with generational renewal; we see farmers clinging on to their land and not handing over to the next generation.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we wanted to do is that they should no longer be eligible for only a part of the farm payment \u2013 those that are based on the surface, on the hectares,\u201d they said \u2013 essentially the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS).<\/p>\n \u201cEverything else they can continue to receive. <\/p>\n \u201cOf course, if somebody doesn\u2019t have any pension at all, they should also continue to receive [payments], but where you have a national pension, then we think agricultural subsidies are not a social security system.\u201d<\/p>\n Brussels wants \u201cproductive agriculture, active farmers\u201d, they said, adding that it is difficult to see how the proposal will play out. <\/p>\n \u201cWe want to incentivise, we want that member states set up a proper farmer pension system and then the farmer at 68 or 70 has a pension that allows him or her to continue basically. The agriculture policy is not the social policy,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n Retirement measure<\/strong><\/p>\n When asked if the Commission would introduce a farm retirement measure in the next CAP, they said: \u201cWe can\u2019t do that from Brussels but we would like it to come around\u201d.<\/p>\n This appears to put the ball in Ireland\u2019s court in terms of its plan for the next CAP, with any decision on a retirement scheme a decision for the Irish Government.<\/p>\n Next CAP budget <\/p>\n It is expected that the Cypriot presidency will report in April with the likely budget for the next CAP and it is understood that it wants a discussion on the numbers in June. This would occur just as Ireland is poised to take the reins and assume the presidency for the second half of the year.<\/p>\n A decision on the next budget is expected in December. <\/p>\n \u201cOur plan A is that there is agreement on the numbers in December. Then agreement on the sectoral legislation, CAP regulation, Common Markets Organisation \u2013 early on in 2027. <\/p>\n \u201cThen the [new CAP] plans are being done, plans are submitted by summer, the Commission screens the plans, negotiates perhaps to improve certain things, and it goes to council for approval towards the end of 2027. <\/p>\n \u201cSo, the farmer that takes the decision of what to plant in spring knows what to expect. If that plan doesn\u2019t work, I think we need to think about a transition,\u201d the source said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Commission want member states to establish a proper farmer pension scheme, a well-placed source in Brussels…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[177],"tags":[183217,183214,22261,79,58703,183215,18,5766,183216,19,17,5,4592,2090,234,235,3887,23317],"class_list":["post-404896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-amy-forde","tag-basic-income-support-for-sustainability","tag-brussels","tag-business","tag-cap","tag-cap-budget","tag-eire","tag-european-commission","tag-generational-renewal","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-payments","tag-pensions","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-retirement","tag-subsidies"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116295527742005835","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}