The results are in, the celebrations are over and it’s time to get going with the work! For the new MEPs elected there is much to sort out, office space, new staff and the all-important jostling for seats on the parliament’s committees.
For the UK farming unions, the agriculture committee and the environment committee are the two most relevant of the 22. By and large, most of the UK members on the agriculture committee have been returned to parliament, Liberal Democrat and past NFU Scotland President George Lyon being the notable exception.
UKIP MEP Stuart Agnew is likely to want to continue with his agriculture responsibilities. With 24 MEPs returned, UKIP may wish to add even more weight to their standing on the agriculture committee. Our office in Brussels has good working relations with the UKIP agriculture team.
Stuart recently described the new CAP three crop rule as “gobbledygook” and there is no doubt we have allies in UKIP and in the other MEPs elected to pare back some of the unnecessary regulations proposed by the European Commission.
However the UKIP policy is to renationalise the Common Agriculture Policy - we certainly agree that this round of CAP reform has been a missed opportunity, but the solution isn’t in greater renationalisation, it’s in strategic reform that brings the CAP back to doing what it says it says on the tin to being once again a more “common” market-orientated policy focused on agriculture.
One of the first jobs the new parliament will have to do is to vote through the next President of the European Commission. He or she will be kingmaker for the 27 other commissioners, including whoever the next Agriculture Commissioner will be. Once nominated, the commissioner designates will have to attend hearings with the MEPs. If they want to pass their job interview, the nominees will have to shine bright in front of the MEPs. This will be a great opportunity to secure pledges of support to change the direction of travel on policies such as CAP and plant protection products.