CAP Reform

As an amendment to motion S4M-05898 in the name of Tavish Scott (CAP Reform), leave out from “believes” to end and insert "welcomes the fact that the Scottish Government, building on the early modelling work on direct payments published alongside its 2009-10 inquiry into future farm support, has been consulting stakeholders since autumn 2012 on a second tranche of modelling, the results of which are due to be discussed at the Scottish Government CAP conference on 17 April 2013; notes that Scottish stakeholders are currently calling on UK ministers to stop ignoring Scotland's views during the current EU negotiations; further notes that, under the current CAP, Scotland receives the lowest rural development budget allocation per hectare and the fourth lowest direct payments budget allocation per hectare in Europe; notes that, in the multiannual financial framework agreement of 8 February 2013, a large number of EU member states negotiated special uplifts to their direct payments and rural development budget allocations; regrets that the UK Government seems to have failed to negotiate any such uplift for the UK or for Scotland; calls on the UK Government, in the remaining discussions on the EU and CAP budgets and in the forthcoming discussions on budget allocations within the UK, to ensure that Scotland’s low share of CAP spending is rectified in order that the needs of rural Scotland can be properly addressed, and recognises that Scotland as an independent member state of the EU would benefit from significant additional CAP funds for the benefit of its farmers and wider rural communities."