income aid

A further shift in agricultural spending from price support to direct income aid is also proposed.

With the correct funding, this scheme can give income aid to farmers who are farming in very difficult conditions.

Criteria such as employment will therefore be taken into account when we define the ceilings for agricultural income aid.

Any change made by the European Union to direct income aid must be done without damaging the income of farmers.

In addition, this process will largely affect small and medium-sized farms, as they will be only partially compensated through income aid.

The income aid would be maintained while farmers sought alternative livelihoods and the Administration sought non-agricultural development of rural economies.

The reform of income aid will, however, link direct grants to the role played by the farmer as a manager responsible for his land and for the rural environment.

That is why the Commission communication stressed the value of providing income aid in addition to the second pillar payments made to areas with natural constraints, which will continue to be awarded.

We are especially concerned for small family farms, as the fall in prices, which is only partially compensated for by income aid, will mainly affect small and medium-sized farms.

What measures does it intend to implement to protect income aid for farmers under the CAP and shield such aid from fraudulent practices which tarnish the sector' s image and undermine its impact?

An important precondition for this is that agricultural policy should tend to move away from price guarantees and towards a system of direct income aid coupled with measures to promote stewardship of the countryside and the protection of the environment.

On that point, let me observe that, as the budgetary authority, our participatory roles in the rural development programmes and in the area of traditional income aid are different and that the Commission should please bear that in mind so that it can go ahead on time.

A few brief words on degression and modulation: our farmers expect planning to be reliable and it is simply inappropriate to once again curtail and redeploy between 8 and 53% of direct income aid with a compulsory 5% modulation only four years after implementation of the last reform.

This also provides an opportunity to grant financial compensation to cattle farms hit by the beef crisis caused by BSE, without imposing any additional burden on the budget - and I stress the word additional. And these farms would nevertheless be given income aid through the channel of animal feed.

By moving away from the policy of supporting agriculture through prices, by shrinking into ourselves and encouraging nationalisation, by undermining this sector through a further increase in direct income aid, Europe is moving further and further away from its mission and the founding principles of the common agricultural market.