Brussels, 20/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 19 October in Vienna, as part of the debate on reform of the post-2013 common agricultural policy (CAP), Germany and Austria called for a “limited” recalibration of EU agricultural aid. This redistribution would be done to benefit new EU member states.
According to a press release published at the end of the meeting, there had been an agreement between the Austrian minister for agriculture, Nikolaus Berlakovich and his German counterpart, Ilse Aigner, on “a new limited redistribution of funds to member states currently receiving particularly low levels of payments”. The two ministers, however, said that these funds should not be dissipated and repeated their support for the two pillars of the CAP (the first involves direct aid and market spending, whilst the second contains rural development programmes). This recalibration is being called for by Eastern European countries, with Poland at the head of them.
The Commission is expected to propose, in its communication on the future of the CAP, a ceiling on aid paid to each farmer, a measure particularly opposed by Germany. The Austrian minister called for the ceiling of the aid to be set at €800,000. (L.C./transl.fl)