Outcome of the June Agricultural Council meeting

The compromise text for reform of the CAP was distributed at the June EU Agricultural Council meeting. It proposed a number of changes, notably: establishing an earlier start date for modulation; increasing support for young farmers through the rural development regulation; the maintenance of rotational set aside; the exclusion of certain payments from decoupling, including sheep and goat supplementary payments in less favoured and mountain regions, drying aid for cereals, and direct payments in outermost regions. A decision on additional quotas in the dairy sector was deferred as was decoupling pending the full implementation of dairy sector reform. A decision on the compromise text was deferred to allow member states more time to reflect. Comment: The decision to defer decoupling in the dairy sector until reform is completed, gives a clear indication that for other sectors such as sugar, substantial reform involving price reductions and increased product-specific direct aid payments will have to precede the incorporation of the sector into the single decoupled farm aid payments scheme.The compromise text for reform of the CAP was distributed at the ..