McLaren 'open minded' on Pack's top-up plan, despite EU hurdles

NFU Scotland president Jim McLaren has clarified a report in The Scotsman yesterday suggesting that the union was opposed to the principle of a "top-up" payment to farmers in future support arrangements paid for by top- slicing the Single Farm Payment (SFP).

McLaren confirmed he was sceptical about the use of so-called Article 68 to achieve the same objective under the current SFP arrangements, but said he had an open mind on the top-up proposal in the Pack Inquiry report. However, formidable obstacles would have to be overcome to get such a proposal accepted in Europe, where it could be seen as "modulation".

The main debate in Scotland was likely to centre on the proportion of SFP that should be deducted to create a top-up fund. The Pack report speculates that two-thirds could be paid as an area payment and one-third as top-up to achieve specific outcomes.

"We need to stimulate debate to ensure we come up with the right solution for Scotland and convince both the UK government and the EU so the new rules which are due to come into force in 2014 allow us to do what we want to do," McLaren said.

The level of deduction was one of the main topics raised when East Lothian farmers met inquiry chairman Brian Pack at Haddington earlier this week.

Union vice-president Nigel Miller went as far as suggesting a 90 per cent top-up fund, although he stressed this was a personal view. Milk committee convener Jimmy Mitchell warned that making large deductions from the SFP paid to dairy farmers would decimate the dairy industry.

There was also opposition to top-up at the annual meeting of the union's North-east area yesterday. Aberdeenshire beef farmer Sjirk Oosterhof said top-slicing was "modulation by another name" and was not in the interests of the industry as a whole.