Getting CAP deal like trying to herd cats
29 November 1998
Getting CAP deal ‘like trying to herd cats’
By Vicky Houchin and Philip Clarke
GETTING European ministers to agree over reform of the Common Agricultural Policy is `like trying to herd cats, it was claimed today (Sunday).
European farm and finance ministers are meant to reach a decision on CAP reform by March next year.
But deadlock in Brussels has left one farmers leader less than amused.
“Getting ministers to make a decision on CAP is like trying to herd cats,” said Richard Butler, NFU Cereals Committee Chairman.
Mr Butlers comments came a week after farm and finance ministers locked horns again over the best route forward.
Last Monday, finance ministers said they could not agree the future funding arrangements for CAP reform until they had a clear idea of what the new policy looked like.
But farm ministers retorted by saying that they could not decide on the details of reform until they had seen the framework under which it would operate.