Spelman denies ‘avoiding’ Scots parliament agriculture body

UK ENVIRONMENT Secretary Caroline Spelman yesterday denied she was unwilling to meet the Scottish parliament’s agriculture committee to discuss proposed reforms of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy.

Speaking after a speech at the Oxford Farming Conference, Spelman said she had been unable to accept two recent invitations because of a clash with other meetings but had offered her deputy, agriculture minister Jim Paice, to attend in her place.

“There is no reluctance on my part to meet the committee,” Spelman insisted. “I broke off from a holiday last year to meet [cabinet secretary Richard] Lochhead and I will be in Scotland on 12 January 12 to discuss fishing.”

No mention was made of a meeting with NFU Scotland president Nigel Miller on the same day.

Although agriculture is a devolved issue, Spelman is expected to represent the interests of all UK farmers in forthcoming CAP negotiations and Scotland will have no place at the negotiating table.

The Scottish Government and NFU Scotland are both anxious to ensure that she is fully briefed on the differing priorities for Scotland compared with the rest of the UK.

Spelman insisted yesterday that her negotiating position had not been weakened by the UK government’s stance on supporting the euro and that the UK was building alliances with other countries to achieve changes in the European Commission’s proposals for reform.

“The UK is at the heart of negotiations on CAP reform and our influence is undiminished,” she maintained. “We’ve been building alliances with those who oppose the capping of individual farm payments, like Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, as well as traditional alliances like those with Scandinavia and the Netherlands. We are also making sure that the commission understands what UK farmers need.”

She agreed that increasing food production was important but said this must not be at the expense of the environment.

“The commission’s proposals for greening the CAP don’t go far enough,” she said. “The idea that introducing the requirement for a crop rotation as a greening measure and as part of cross compliance is unnecessarily complicated.

“We need to be more ambitious.”

Spelman added she was still hopeful that agreement could be reached in time for reforms to be implemented in 2014.

“We have a window between the French elections in June 2012 and the German elections in October 2013, when I hope we can make progress,” she said. “We would hope get most of the preparation completed under the Danish presidency in the first half of 2012 and agreement under the Irish presidency in the first half of 2013.”

The UK government spent £400 million a year on agricultural science and the UK was at the cutting edge of science and technology which would help farmers to make the most of a relatively small amount of land and finite natural resources.

“The science base is a huge strength, earning us respect and the chance of leadership, as well as increased productivity and competitiveness for our own farmers,” she said.