EU members agree on agriculture reforms, subsidy cuts

22 November 2008

Member nations of the European Union (EU) have arrived at an agreement that will see a revamp of their farm support policy, increases in milk quotas, subsidy cuts for production and increased support to  eco-friendly projects.

The compromise agreement was arrived at after around 18 hours of negotiations in Brussels, where the farm ministers of the 27 members states of the EU finally came around to the first major overhaul of the controversial Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for five years.

French agriculture minister Michel Barnier said that the accord thrashed out was ''near-unanimous". France also holds the EU's rotating presidency until the end of the year.

However, a usually strong advocate of radical system reform, the UK, felt the measures fell short. Reports in the media quoted unnamed spokesman from the UK as saying that they were ''disappointed not to be able to support this package", and instead view the agreement as an opportunity lost for the EU to introduce more reforms to the CAP budget at a faster pace.

Latvia was also amongst the nations opposing the agreement as it would have preferred to see additional sorting out of its farm subsidies, as compared to other newer members of the EU.

Germany almost joined the opposition to the policy, but then decided that the compromise was the best they could possibly get.