CEO's Blog 12th February 2010

Sitting on the bus heading back to Brussels airport after spending the last couple of days debating to future of the CAP.  The meetings were all organised by COPA, the umbrella body for all the main European farm unions.

The highlight came yesterday with a meeting we had with the new Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos (click on this for more details of his early views http://www.nfus.org.uk/news/2010/february/scottish-union-meets-new-agricultural-commissioner). And fair play to him for subjecting himself to two and half hours of questioning in his first week, then nipping along with the rest of us for a pint of the black stuff at the local Irish bar.  He's made a good start.

Perhaps the thing I take away from another trip to the heart of the EU process is that trying to find agreement amongst 27 member states will be some task.

We are wrestling in Scotland with how to design a system to recognise the differing challenges across our different sectors and regions.  Multiply that stress by a factor of 27, throw in some historical baggage and resentment, add a touch of testosterone and grandstanding and you get close to where the EU industry debate is just now.

The most obvious battle line is drawn between the new and old member states when it comes to distributing the CAP budget.  Emotion amongst the accession countries understandably runs high.  They feel that Europe opened its arms to them, asked to behave like 100 percent EU citizens whilst giving them only a third of the support afforded to everyone else.

One Polish delegate summed up their feelings this morning when he said that ''a full CAP payment was not a donation, it was a promise!''.

On the positive side, we are identifying useful allies.   The French, Italian, Spanish and Irish representatives all made some similar noises to Scotland.  And given the way the battle lines will be drawn in the coming months, we will need all the allies we can get.