Nicholson warns Prime Minister to keep his hands off our Farmers Money
Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson said today that this week’s resounding vote in the European Parliament rejecting voluntary modulation should send a strong message to the European Commission, Council and UK Government that this ill thought out proposal will not be tolerated.
“The Prime Minister, Tony Blair can keep his hands off our farmer’s money”, the UUP MEP warned.
Farmers are faced with a 20% income cut if the UK agrees to the Commission proposal before the Parliament to cut the value of the Single Farm Payment and use the amounts released to fund rural development schemes.
The rejection of this proposal will trigger a request for the Commission to withdraw it. Once the Commission formally refuses to do this, which will probably happen in the next few days, the European Parliament’s agriculture committee will then have two months to present the plenary with another report.
In a statement Mr Nicholson said,
“It is not the farmer’s fault that the UK Government negotiated such a miserable deal for the development of the second pillar support to the rural economy. The blame lies at the door of the Prime Minister. Tony Blair. The truth is that these so called negotiators achieved the worst possible deal and they now want to hijack a minimum of 20% of farmer’s single farm payment.
“This proposal will only be implemented in the UK and is only supported by the UK Government. It will place UK farmers in an impossible situation. They will be financially in an invidious position compared to other farmers in the rest of the EU. In Northern Ireland it will mean the erosion of the family farm concept that is the backbone of the industry and for that I totally reject it. The proposal amount to nothing more than an attempt to renationalize the CAP.
“This is the first time in all my time in Parliament that I can remember the Budget’s Committee and the Agriculture Committee agreeing 100% on anything and in opposing voluntary modulation they are doing just that.
“We are seriously examining the possibility of insisting that the Commission carry out an environmental impact assessment on the effect of this in light of the recent European Court of Justice’s decision against Spain when they removed support from cotton production.
“There is a long way to go and whilst the Parliament is not totally in control, we will nonetheless exhaust every option and leave no stone unturned to ensure that voluntary modulation is not introduced.”