New CAP to bring additional support for young farmers

Newsroom 14/10/2011 | 16:03

Young farmers from EU member states could benefit from 25 percent higher direct payments per hectare in the first five years after setting a farm starting with 2014, explained Dacian Ciolos, the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development on Friday during the Mediafax Talks about Agriculture Conference in Bucharest. The support scheme comes in addition to the already existing installation aid, explained the commissioner.

This is only one of the measures in the draft reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the period after 2013 which was presented this week in Brussels.

Ciolos explained that the new CAP focuses on making support more transparent, fairer, simpler and more focused while at the same time backing environment protection.

Other measures include helping farmers cope with rapid changes in prices and demand by speeding up support during economic crises, linking agricultural production to research and innovation, reserving 30 percent of CAP payments for farms using environment-friendly practices and empowering farmers by supporting farming organizations and promoting more direct links with consumers by cutting the number of intermediaries.

Simona Bazavan