Minister calls for reform feedback

He pledged to do his best at the launch of an online questionnaire on the draft proposals, which anyone can use to feed comments to Defra.

He said there were at least 18 months of negotiations to go through and added: “We’re absolutely committed to the best possible deal for the UK, both on protecting the environment and encouraging an innovative and competitive agriculture sector. That’s why it’s crucial the people on the ground whose lives and professions will be affected are able to tell us their views.

“CAP covers so many areas of life that it’s important we take everything into consideration and bring it to the attention of the EU during the negotiation process.”

He then made his promise to try to ensure English farmers who are thinking about entering or renewing agri-environment agreements could choose to opt out without penalty if they had to make changes to their agreements as a result of CAP greening.

He said: “We’ll do everything we possibly can to make sure farmers aren’t disadvantaged because of having been ahead of the game on environmental management. We’ve already told the Commissioner about this a number of times, and it seems he’s listening to our concerns.

“We strongly believe that stewardship schemes are the best way to get better environmental protection from the CAP, but if changes do have to be made to them, at the very least farmers would be able to opt out.”

The Defra questionnaire can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/cza2dfa

Harry Cotterell, new president of the CLA, said: “We are pleased the Minister has pledged to make sure farmers will not be penalised if they have to back out of environmental stewardship schemes as a consequence of changes to the CAP.

“I am delighted he has taken our concerns on board.”