Agriculture: Common Agricultural Policy Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Lord Tomlinson
Main Page: Lord Tomlinson (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Tomlinson's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(11 years, 5 months ago)
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Lord Tomlinson
Does the Minister accept that when we look at the European Union budget, it really does not reflect priorities? We have an agricultural budget that exceeds that of research and development and indeed that of employment measures. While I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Plumb, on the need to maximise food production, we ought perhaps to take some lessons from the Cairns Group and put them into effect in Europe.
Lord De Mauley
I cannot find very much to disagree with in what the noble Lord says. We worked very hard in the direction in which he is moving. The cut to the CAP budget was €55 billion, which is roughly equal to the annual level of spending on the CAP budget and better than a real freeze.