George Lyon: Scots independence won’t bring better CAP deal
Scotland does not need to become an independent nation to get a fairer deal from the Common Agricultural Policy, George Lyon MEP has said.
Speaking to Farmers Weekly at a Q&A session with European Agriculture Commissioner Dacion Ciolos last week, Mr Lyon refuted claims that Scotland would only get a better CAP deal with independence.
At the Royal Highland Show in June this year, Scottish rural affairs secretary Richard Lochhead said Scotland would secure €170m more CAP resource if it were to become an independent country.
“This is wrong because currently our allocation is calculated on what we produced in 1999 and 2001, and that then divided by the number of hectares gives us a very low payment per hectare,” said Mr Lyon, a Scottish Liberal Democrat MEP.
Fairer distribution of money based on the number of hectares would only come about through a redistribution of funds in the UK, as the whole country moved to an area-based system, already in place in England, he added.
“We don’t need to become independent to get a better deal on CAP in my view.”
George Lyon MEP
“They [Scottish Nationalist Party] cannot argue on the one hand that they want to see a fairer distribution between member states and then say we are not going to see a fairer distribution within the UK between the different regions,” said Mr Lyon.
“We don’t need to become independent to get a better deal on CAP in my view.”
Commenting on CAP reform, he said the key sticking points in coming to an agreement were convergence and greening.
See a video of Mr Lyon explaining why a menu approach to greening proposals is necessary.
For more on CAP reform see our special report