CAP support plan ‘unlikely to survive’

One of Scotland’s top civil servants has this week raised questions over whether the proposal in the EU common agricultural reform package to limit the amount of support any individual might get would survive the negotiating round.

David Barnes was speaking in Perth at the first of 14 round-Scotland CAP road shows when he suggested that, while there were attractions to the proposal from the general public’s point of view, technically it might be difficult to implement.

Taxpayers did not like to see pension funds or public utilities benefitting from schemes primarily designed to benefit farmers, he told a packed audience of more than 250 farmers and other involved in the agricultural industry.

And yet, if the politicians wanted to exclude anyone or any- body from receiving subsidies, he said, it was already possible under existing legislation.