Providing long term stability through the CAP
Without further reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) our farmers will be disadvantaged and the poorest countries will continue to be shut out of one of the largest and richest markets in the world. We want further reform to foster a more productive, sustainable and competitive farming industry, both here and in the developing world, and to deliver taxpayers greater value for money.
Whilst the so-called ‘Mid-Term Review’ of 2002/03 and the introduction of decoupled payments was an important step, we still do not have a CAP which is sustainable in the long term. The likelihood of the single farm payment continuing after 2013, albeit at a lower level, underlines the importance of ensuring that cross-compliance rules with which farmers must comply to receive payments are applied proportionately.
A Conservative Government will negotiate a successor to the present policy with the following objectives:
We will work for the abolition of any remaining support linked to production, to bring the rest of Europe into line with England, wherefull decoupling has already taken place.
We will press for a shift of existing resources across the EU to the rural development programme and for a fair share of that programme for the UK.
We will push for the CAP to become increasingly compulsorily cofinanced by Member States, thus reducing the cost of supporting other countries’ farmers by British taxpayers.
Given the unprecedented pressures on our natural and economic resources it is essential that we prioritise spending under the CAP to maximise public benefits.
We will seek to create a more effective system of environmental stewardship which involves existing advisory networks in the voluntary sector and includes an element of outcome measurement.
We will redirect existing funding to increase the proportion of spending under the rural development programme on measures to help the farming industry modernise and meet future challenges.
In an interconnected world CAP reform cannot take place in isolation from world trade talks and we remain committed to an ambitious deal at the Doha Round.
We will press for the comprehensive dismantling of trade barriers across the world, at a pace that allows British producers to adapt to a truly open market.