CAP announcement show farmers get a better deal as part of the UK — Carmichael
According to Scottish Secretary of State, Alistair Carmichael, today’s CAP budget announcement is confirmation that Scottish farmers get a better deal on CAP as part of the United Kingdom.
He said: “Of course, times are tight in Brussels, as at home, and direct payments will go down by 1.6 per cent across all of the UK’s family of nations, just as the reduction in structural funds was shared across the UK to Scotland’s benefit.
“But there is good news specific to Scotland here too.
“We are willing to offer the Scottish Government the opportunity to provide extra coupled payments of up to 10 per cent in the vitally important livestock sector – rather than its allocated eight per cent. We could do that by sharing the unused flexibility from other parts of the United Kingdom to support the specific needs of Scottish farmers, provided that the Scottish Government, as the sole beneficiary, agree to take on any financial risk.”