Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

As I see it, we cannot finalise the Common Agricultural Policy reform and spending money on new schemes until the multi-annual financial framework negotiations are finalised. This is the multi-year budget which Europe must agree. The Commission hopes the MFF will be finalised in December. I would like to see this happen but I think it is unlikely politically. I think it will also be an issue for the Irish Presidency. Under our Presidency we will need to try to get agreement and finality on the MFF and in doing so protect the CAP budget. Let us be clear: More than 80% of all EU funds coming to Ireland comes through the CAP. It is by far the most important element of EU funding for us and we need to protect it. It is hard to give a date but I hope that in the first quarter of next year we will see the MFF finalised and agreed. This will mean there will be huge pressure on the Irish Presidency to get the deal on CAP done before our Presidency ends. If the detail of CAP is not agreed next year it will be impossible to see a new CAP taking effect from the beginning of 2014. There will be only six months to put the new regulations and rules in place and get the information out to farmers. There will be huge pressure on our Presidency to get this done, and this pressure will come from the Commission and other member states. I hope that in February or March of next year we will be able to finalise the MFF and in May or early June we will see CAP coming to a final conclusion. Many of the final agreed CAP proposals will have been predicted at this stage by the Commission and it will be ready to go with the new rules and regulations that need to be rolled out in the following six months for a new CAP to begin at the start of 2014. The timetable is tight but I believe it is doable.

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