NFU Scotland is to press for a review of a controversial Cap budget decision which delivers a more equitable financial solution for Scottish farmers sooner than the UK Government has indicated.
President Nigel Miller said any recommendations stemming from the study promised by UK Environment Secretary Owen Paterson should be implemented in 2017 as opposed to post-2020.
Mr Miller was speaking as the debate moved to Brussels over Mr Paterson’s decision to share a £190million increase to resolve poor Scottish payments was shared with England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead yesterday branded the stance unjust and contradictory against the intentions of the EU and the cross-party wishes of the Scottish Parliament when he met Mr Paterson at the European Agriculture Council.
“Scottish farmers and crofters are left with the lowest per-hectare payments in Europe and it is the per-hectare measurement that the EU uses to allocate Cap funding, not any other formula that UK ministers want to make up to defend the indefensible,” he added.
Mr Lochhead said the budgetary review offer in 2016-17 was inadequate and that Scottish farmers deserved better.
He said Mr Paterson had confirmed that even if the review proposed changes these would not happen until post-2020. Mr Paterson will write back clarifying that, though.
Mr Lochhead, however, still had concerns, adding: “In any case, my own view remains that any pledge by an existing UK Government to review a formula that benefits farmers in the rest of the UK is pretty worthless and nothing more than a calculated distraction.
“We have a UK election and in-out EU referendum before the proposed timetable. “
But Mr Miller still sees potential from the review delivering an earlier solution and securing budgetary convergence within the UK so that a Scottish arable farmer gets the same per-hectare payment as those in Norfolk and Northumberland and hill producers north of the border receive the support equal to Yorkshire, Cumbria and Wales.
“We need to make sure our farmers are on the same level playing field, not on some lower level of support than the rest of the UK.”
The union is to meet UK Farming Minister George Eustice in January and will be in Brussels today meeting senior European Commission officials to get their view.
Mr Miller conceded he would never expect Mr Paterson to admit he had made a mistake, nor change his mind. He also does not expect the commission will want to enter a debate on how the UK splits Cap funds.
But union chief executive Scott Walker said Europe needed to reflect on the fact that money destined for a region with well below average payments would not now be receiving it.
Mr Miller said the issue was one of principles and EC should be concerned that its approach to resolve low payments was not being followed.
Any review should be fully independent. The union is in the process of drawing up the terms of reference it wants the review to consider and will be giving these to Mr Eustice.
It also yesterday said it had asked Defra a series of questions on the objective and non-discriminatory criteria it had used to reach its decision.
A spokeswoman for Mr Paterson reiterated Defra’s view since the start of the controversy that Scottish farmers would continue to receive the highest payments per farm in the UK, and one of the highest overall in the EU.
A 1.6% decrease in the UK’s Cap budget would be shared equally in Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales.