Overly burdensome regulation and specifically CAP reform is consistently cited by our members as having the biggest negative impact on business confidence. The new direct payments rules were introduced with little time for farmers to prepare and in many cases guidance was changing throughout the application window.
The full impact of that is only now being felt as farmers face late payments and in some cases reductions in the value of their payments due to errors and mistakes being identified.
We believe the proposals to reform the CAP post 2014 were a missed opportunity. It is our view that the last round of reform is contrary to progress made in previous CAP reforms, particularly around some of the greening elements and the ‘three crop rule’.