European policymakers could go back to the drawing board with Common Agricultural Policy (Cap) during the next parliamentary session, according to a leading Scots MEP.
“I don’t think the Cap is fit for purpose,” said SNP MEP Alyn Smith at a NFU Scotland hustings event in the north-east this week.
“Cap is now beyond the point where it is doing what it says on the tin. I think what we are going to see over the next period is a lot of people say let’s take a fresh sheet of paper and design this [Cap] from scratch.”
Both Mr Smith and Lib Dem MEP George Lyon agreed Scotland was likely to suffer as a result of greening rules in the new Cap – namely the three-crop rule which has the potential to wipe out large areas of malting barley production in the north and north-east.
The pair, who are both hoping to be re-elected to the European Parliament following the election on May 22, said the current greening proposals were nonsense and it was hoped a mid-term review of the rules in 2017 would offer a chance to implement change.
Mr Lyon said: “We did a fantastic job of making sure that Scotland had all the powers to introduce a Cap of its own but we should have had a menu option for the greening rules.
“This one size fits all greening is absolute nonsense. I really hope by 2017 we will be in a position to take this forward and widen out the measures and make sure they remain voluntary.”
The pair of MEPs who have been at the forefront of European agri-politics were joined at the hustings event by Derek Munn from Scottish Labour and Morayshire farmer Edward Mountain who stepped in on behalf of the Tories as MEP candidate Ian Duncan was unable to attend.
All four agreed changes needed to be made to cross-compliance checks to make sure farmers were given advanced warning of inspections and that any penalties imposed were commensurate with the fault.
Mr Smith said: “We do need to keep the Commission on side – this is public money going for the provision of public goods – and we have made some progress.”
He said the La Via report into cross compliance had put forward a number of proposals, which if adopted correctly by member states, would reduce the stress on farmers and ensure any penalties were in proportion to the cross compliance breaches made.
“I have it in black and white from the Scottish Government that it [La Via report] will be used to the hilt,” said Mr Smith.
Proposals put forward in the report include not penalising a farmer for their first mistake, to allow them time to rectify the situation.
Mr Lyon said: “We put in proportionality throughout the text to allow that proper legal interpretation, and we also built a reward into the system that said if you are doing well we take the inspections back.”
NFU Scotland president Nigel Miller urged all farmers to vote in the European elections.
“For Scottish farming and the rural economy, Europe does matter,” said Mr Miller.
“Party politics does not matter so much out in Brussels and our MEPs need to work together for Scotland.”