Meeting of the Parliament 09 March 2016 [Draft]
The result of the division is: For 62, Against 53, Abstentions 0.
Motion, as amended, agreed to,
That the Parliament acknowledges that the common agricultural policy (CAP) currently being implemented is the most radical and ambitious ever, with unprecedented simultaneous reforms to both Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 of the CAP requiring around 20 schemes to be launched during 2015 and the introduction of greening measures and three payment regions; notes that the timetable of EU negotiations and decisions left administrations with a short timescale in which to implement such radical reforms; welcomes the fact that the Scottish Government engaged comprehensively with stakeholders during the development and negotiation of the policy, and that both stakeholders and the Scottish Government agreed that securing the right policy outcomes for Scotland was the priority even if this risked impacting on the timing of payments within the 1 December to 30 June Pillar 1 payment window; notes that the Scottish Government had issued over 10,000 payments worth around 80% of basic and greening payments to 56% of eligible farmers and crofters as of 7 March 2016; acknowledges that, at the same time as the transition to the new CAP, farmers are facing additional difficulties due to market trends and unfavourable weather and therefore welcomes the announcements of steps by the Scottish Government to accelerate basic payments to farmers using Scottish Government funds and the national less favoured area support scheme expected to deliver payments to the vast majority of eligible farmers and crofters by the end of March 2016; commits to learning lessons from the implementation of the new CAP, and supports the continuation of CAP payments as one of the benefits of Scotland’s continuing membership of the EU.