Brussels plans green farming revolution

In a radical and controversial overhaul of its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the EU plans a greener, fairer farm policy by tying subsidies to environmental concerns, according to leaked documents seen by AFP. The documents outline a proposed reform of the CAP from January 2014 to be presented Wednesday by the European Union's agriculture commissioner Dacian Ciolos. Among his proposals to reform the CAP, which traditionally accounts for about 40 percent of the bloc's annual spending of nearly 140 billion euros, is a call for 30 percent of EU direct farm subisidies to be conditioned on respect for the environment. The measures include crop diversity -- planting at least three varieties, with no more than 70 percent of land used for a single crop -- and using seven percent of arable land as ecological fallows that are havens for plants, animals and insects. But the idea of greening Europe's farms triggered an angry response from Europe's leading farmers' organisation, Copa-Cogeca. "At a time when the Chinese are massively purchasing land in Africa, we are being asked to leave seven percent of our land fallow," said German Copa-Cogeca official Gerd Sonnleitner. The group said the reform would leave six to seven million hectares idle. To even out subsidies in the interests of fairness, Ciolos plans to cap payouts to farmers at 300,000 euros ($424,000) per year. In addition, levies would be applied progressively on all payments exceeding 150,000 euros. Big farms with a large number of workers could win exemptions as salaries could be deducted from the handouts, according to the European Commission proposals. Some states, such as Britain, Germany and the Netherlands, are strongly opposed to capping subsidies on the grounds it could lead to a carve-up of large farms. Responding to criticism from the EU's Court of Auditors, the commission proposals seek to ensure that more effort is made to ensure subsidies go only to "active farmers" rather than airports or golf-clubs as has sometimes been the case. In Britain, Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Windsor, major beneficiaries of the CAP, will continue to receive the aid but might be strongly affected by the capping. Whilst 80 percent of EU farm subsidies currently go to 20 percent of the bloc's biggest farms -- in terms of production, and often based on data a decade old -- from 2014 to 2019 the subsidies progressively will be calculated per hectare, should the proposals be approved. It was hoped this would favour more extensive farming and radically revise the arithmetic. Calculations for France and Italy, respectively the largest and fourth largest recipients of PAC subsidies, are currently based on production figures from the early 2000s. France would see a 1.5 percent fall in subsidies in the 2014-2019 period, while Romania, Bulgaria and the three Baltic nations would see an increase -- in Romania's case of 33.7 percent. But eastern EU members, which have complained of below-average subsidies, would continue to be behind the older EU members, with Latvia notably 54 percent below the average. According to the documents, the CAP budget would decrease in constant prices from 57.4 billion euros in 2013 to 50.2 billion in 2020, slipping to 33 percent of the total budget.