Common agricultural policy (CAP): direct support schemes

The committee adopted the report by Friedrich-Wilhelm GRAEFE zu BARINGDORF (Greens/EFA, D) broadly approving the Commission proposal subject to a few amendments (consultation procedure). While agreeing that the proposed Small Farmers Scheme would help small farmers by rationalising the current myriad of separate subsidy payments into a single lump-sum payment made each year, the committee nevertheless wanted to raise the upper cash limit of EUR 1000 per year to EUR 1500, to ensure that more lower-income farms benefited. It also called for payments to be reduced if farmers failed to meet environmental requirements or if the labour force was smaller than average.�