Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

Deputy McConalogue asked about the timeline from hereon in. The Commission published a tentative outlook. The intention is that there will be a debate in the European Parliament and the Council on the CAP proposals towards the end of this year. There will be potential agreement on the next multi-annual financial framework, MFF, by Heads of State and Government in spring 2019. The potential adoption of the next CAP by co-legislators, namely Parliament and Council, will be by spring 2019. Then we are into European Parliament elections in May 2019. The intention is for the entry into force of the new CAP in 2021.

In practice, that means officials will work through the detail of this over the next month in working parties. The Council then will come to a general agreement on the shape of it. If that is to go through the European Parliament before spring 2019, the Council needs to have agreed on the general shape before the end of this year or early in 2019. Then it goes to the European Parliament. I was involved in the 2013 amendment to CAP and there were many thousands of amendments to the Council proposals which came from the European Parliament. It was a difficult process.

If this is to happen in time for 2021, realistically, we need agreement in the Council and European Parliament in the spring of next year before we get into the parliamentary election cycle. It is a tough timeline. I will not comment on whether it is possible, but it will be difficult.