Cioloş in Slovakia: the reformed Common Agricultural Policy will propose a balanced and fair distribution of direct payments for farmers
Visiting Slovakia on the 12 of April, the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Dacian Cioloş discussed the future reform of the Common agriculture policy (CAP) with the Minister for Agriculture Mr. Zsolt Simon, the Chair of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development Ms. Maria Sabolova and with leaders of professional organizations and chambers.
Talking with the media later in the day, Commissioner Cioloş said that the capping of payments for big farms remains a necessary response to citizens' demands for greater efficiency and transparency on how the public money is spent: "The European Commission's intention is to propose a system of capping for direct payment to big farms. It will also take into account the number of jobs created by a large farm, and the effort this farm is making to have an environmentally sustainable production. One option would be to keep the funds generated by capping in the member state concerned, to be used for investments in modernisation and innovation that would benefit all farms, including the large ones".
Discussing with farmers representatives at the Holice farm, 40 kilometers South of Bratislava, the Commissioner listened to their concerns about the discrepancies in the level of direct support received by farmers in "old" and "new" member states. The Commissioner explained that the reformed CAP will propose a system based on new, objective criteria, aiming for a balanced and fairer distribution of direct payments between member states but also between different types of agriculture.
The legislative proposal of the European Commission on the future of the CAP towards 2020 is expected to be published in the second half of the year.
