SCOTLAND'S farmers have been given clarity from the European Commission on two key areas of CAP implementation.
In a brief Brussels meeting between Scotland's farming minister Richard Lochhead and European Farm Commissioner Ciolos, the commissioner endorsed the Scottish Government's solution to 'slipper farming' and at the same time gave the green light to a plan to increase coupled support for Scottish farmers.
The Scottish Government will now seek urgent confirmation from the UK Government on how much additional coupled support Scotland will be permitted to use, with 13% being the amount requested by Mr Lochhead in a recent letter to Defra Minister Owen Paterson.
Speaking immediately after the meeting, Mr Lochhead said: "It is good news for all the hard working farmers in Scotland that the EU have given their backing to our plan to stamp out slipper farming.
"Under our plans, land on which there is no activity will be ineligible for payments under the new CAP from 2015.
"It has been a priority for us to ensure that only active farmers benefit and we have worked hard to find a solution. Scottish Government officials will now work with the commission to confirm the final details.
"I am also delighted that the commissioner has given the green light to flexibility within the member state on coupled payments, thereby confirming what we understood to be the case," said Mr Lochhead. "The UK allowing increased coupled support in Scotland will make a huge difference to our beef farmers in particular, and I have already written to the UK Government requesting that the option to increase coupled support to 13% be made available to us. UK Ministers have already committed to increasing our ceiling on coupled support and now we need them to come good on their promise.
NFU Scotland chief executive Scott Walker welcomed the outcome of the Ciolos meeting as "very positive".
He said: "Tackling the thorny issue of slipper farmers and securing greater scope around coupled payments have been two of the key priorities for NFU Scotland members. With detail still to emerge, we welcome the flexibility that the cabinet secretary has secured from the Commission in recognising Scotland's unique circumstances.
"With a limited budget, it is essential that money only goes to those people who actively farm.
"Without an effective means of eliminating slipper farmers there was a real risk that substantial sums of money would be available to people contributing little or nothing to Scotland's food and farming sectors."
l For more up to date news and views on Scottish agriculture, see this week's copy of The Scottish Farmer newspaper or visit www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article