EU farming budget to drop

THE NEW EU farming commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, has said that agriculture‘s share of the EU budget will drop from 45% to 36% by 2014, the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende reports.

But Mrs Fischer Boel has made it clear that a complete elimination of EU agricultural subsidies, for which there is support from a majority among Danish politicians, is not on her agenda.

“If anyone believes that I, in the course of five years, will be able to phase out the EU‘s support to agriculture, then they are out of step with reality. It is utopian,” Ms Fischer Boel said.

She also commented on the allegations of a conflict of interest coming in the way of her taking up the post as farming commissioner on the grounds that her family has an estate, run by her husband, which receives EU farm support.

It would be absurd, Ms Fischer Boel said, if a politician could not have a husband who is also a businessman.

But she emphasized that she is preparing herself for the questions which may arise when all the new commissioners are having their “exam” in the EU parliament before their appointments on November 1.