Farming groups hold protest over Cap proposals in Dublin
The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) and the group representing co-ops have held a protest in Dublin, warning against a plan to to remove the Cap budget in favour of a once-off funding approach to the EU budget.
Farmers and farming representatives took part in the 'flash action' at the European Commission offices on Tuesday morning.
Advertisement
The IFA and Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) protest coincides with a flash action organised by Copa Cogeca, the largest representative union of more than 22 million European farmers in Brussels.
The EU Commission has put forward proposals to amalgamate Cap into a single fund.
The move has sparked concern in the agricultural sector, who warns that their funding could be stripped back over the years as it will not be ring-fenced.
Alice Doyle, deputy president of the Irish Farmers' Association, said they have been warning against the consequences of the changes to the Cap budget.
Advertisement
'The Cap budget has been in place since the Treaty of Rome, way back in the 50s, and it was put in place to make sure that we would have food security across Europe, which was paramount and is still paramount today,' she said.
'The production of food is very important. Farmers have to be supported financially to produce food. We are producing the best food in the world, in Ireland and across Europe.
'But if that food security is to be there, we're going to have to support our farmers in the continuous production of that food.
'The Cap budget is what gives that finance to the farmers to help them produce that food. If that budget is subsumed into the main European budget, it can be pilfered at any time, to be used for any purpose.
Advertisement
'We want this ring-fenced, as it has always been from the very beginning, ring-fenced to support farmers across Europe and here in Ireland in particular, in the production of food, and to make sure that we have food security.'
She said: 'If it is not ring-fenced, the income of farmers would be reduced dramatically, because we all depend on that direct payment coming from Europe. That's part of our basic income scheme.
'The second thing is, it would have a huge impact on rural Ireland because farmers are based in rural Ireland, and every penny they earn is spent in rural Ireland.'
Edward Carr, a diary farmer from Tipperary, president of the ICOS and chairman of Arrabawn Co-operative, said the Cap budget is being targeted.
Advertisement
'The proposed changes are very concerning for the future of farmers within our country,' he said.
'It's concerning because the Cap was brought in few years ago for us as a protection that we produce cheap food.
'It has to be taken into consideration that we are probably one of the best countries on the globe to produce sustainable food in a sustainable manner, while protecting the environment.
'I think it's just come to the stage where farmers have to stand up for themselves and protect themselves. The future of this cheap, sustainable food being produced has to be protected. It's time for Europe to pay more heed to this.'
Advertisement
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
40 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
I'm a Vinted expert and I've worked out exactly when to sell clothes to make the most money
A Vinted seller has shared her number one tip for quickly and efficiently selling your pre-loved clothes. UK-based mother and Vinted enthusiast Rachael, who goes by @RachShops on TikTok, sells second-hand clothing on the online marketplace. If her daughter's clothes no longer fit her, for example, she takes to the app and makes a profit from them, instead of leaving good quality clothes hanging in the wardrobe. But she says the key to selling fast on Vinted is timing - specifically which part of the month you list your items. In fact, Rachel explains, listing items towards the end of the month when most people are getting paid could mean they get snapped up more quickly - as it's 'prime selling time'. In a TikTok video posted towards the end of the month, Rachael said: 'This is my most popular Vinted selling tip - the plan is part of a strategy.' Holding up a tub of spring and summer clothes, Rachael said she planned to list them all on Vinted that evening. 'The bigger picture of me doing this tonight is because it's the 27th, it's near the end of the month and most people are getting paid. 'Believe me, this is prime selling time, so I always make sure I list around these days at the end of each month.' Rachael said that, as most people get paid around that time, they have the cash to spend. 'And they will be spending it on Vinted as well,' she said. The avid seller also offered some other timing tricks that she swears by for best results on the app. Rachael advised to make sure that clothes are being sold seasonally in order to maximise sales, for example when listing items during the spring and summer. 'Always think about that when you're listing stuff,' Rachael continued. 'Just make sure it's relative to the time of year and what people are actually looking to buy.' Rachael said that having suitable mailing bags already on hand saves both time and money, and prevents you from rushing at the last minute. 'The thing I would highly recommend you do if you are a Vinted seller is have mailing bags ready before you list anything so you're organised and prepared. Rachael says it all comes down to timing - and listing your items at the end of the month lines up with most people's paydays 'You should have mailing bags to start with - it saves the stress, first of all, of knowing what to package it up in. 'Second of all, you can post it really quickly, helping towards your positive feedback and good reviews.' And Rachael urged sellers to post their items quickly, for the simple reason that you'll 'get your money' faster as a result. Bu the successful seller is not the first to share her useful hacks for making the most of the app. Another secondhand online clothes seller who has made thousands of pounds on Vinted previously revealed her top tips for sales success. Maisie, who is from Yorkshire, searches cat boot sales, charity shops and online pre-loved websites for cheaply-priced garments with a high resale value. Although it started off as a side hustle, Maisie made reselling her full time career last year after earning £18,000 from flogging clothes. Now, she has helped others by telling them how they too can make a wage from the app - and according to her, it's very simple. Maisie said: 'I absolutely love buying on Vinted to resell on Vinted. It's so easy and it just goes to show the difference that a good quality picture with good lighting and a good background can honestly make.' She says that you should always list similar clothes sizes at the same time on Vinted, as people may browse your page and find other items that they like, resulting in more sales. 'They're more likely to get their money's worth by buying a bundle from you so it will boost your sales and your profit at the same time,' Maisie added. 'You're only having to ship out one parcel and the buyer is only having to pay one lot of postage and fees.'
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Dutch center-left parties unite to challenge the right in a historic merger
Two center-left Dutch political parties agreed Thursday to a formal merger, just months away from a general election where they will seek to turn the political tide in the Netherlands away from right-wing populism. Members of the Labor Party and Green Left both voted overwhelmingly in favor of the move to form a single new party. The parties have been working together in parliament for years. Now they will go to the polls as a single entity known by its Dutch name, Groen Links-PvdA. A new party with a new name will follow next year, the parties said after the vote. 'This is a historic moment. This step shows that we, as parties, believe in the power of cooperation, because we can achieve so much more together than apart,' the chair of the Labor Party, Esther-Mirjam Sent, said in a statement. Green Left chair, Katinka Eikelenboom, added that her party's members 'choose with full conviction for cooperation and renewal. We are building a broad, green and social people's party that is ready for the future.' The Oct. 29 election for all 150 seats in the lower house of the Dutch parliament was triggered when right-wing anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders pulled his ministers out of the four-party ruling coalition in a dispute over the pace of reforms to implement tough new measures to rein in migration. The remaining three parties remain in power in a caretaker capacity under Prime Minister Dick Schoof until a new government is formed. The Labor Party is led in parliament by former European Commission climate chief Frans Timmermans, a former Dutch foreign minister. The two center-left parties currently trail Wilders' Party for Freedom in Dutch polling.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
US-backed Israeli company's spyware used to target European journalists, Citizen Lab finds
Spyware from a U.S.-backed Israeli company was used to target the phones of at least three prominent journalists in Europe, two of whom are editors at an investigative news site in Italy, according to digital researchers at Citizen Lab, citing new forensic evidence of the attacks. The findings come amid a growing questions about what role the government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni may have played in spying on journalists and civil society activists critical of her leadership, and raised new concerns about the potential for abuse of commercial spyware, even in democratic countries. 'Any attempts to illegally access data of citizens, including journalists and political opponents, is unacceptable, if confirmed,' the European Commission said in a statement Wednesday in response to questions from members of parliament. 'The Commission will use all the tools at its disposal to ensure the effective application of EU law.' Meloni's office declined to comment Thursday, but a prominent member of her Cabinet has said that Italy 'rigorously respected' the law and that the government hadn't illegally spied on journalists. Mercenary spyware industry The company behind the hacks, Paragon Solutions, has sought to position itself as a virtuous player in the mercenary spyware industry and won U.S. government contracts, The Associated Press found. Backed by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Paragon was reportedly acquired by AE Industrial Partners, a private investment firm based in Florida, in a December deal worth at least $500 million, pending regulatory approvals. AE Industrial Partners didn't directly respond to requests for comment on the deal. Paragon's spyware, Graphite, was used to target around 90 WhatsApp users from more than two dozen countries, primarily in Europe, Meta said in January. Since then, there's been a scramble to figure out who was hacked and who was responsible. 'We've seen first-hand how commercial spyware can be weaponized to target journalists and civil society, and these companies must be held accountable,' a spokesperson for WhatsApp told AP in an email. 'WhatsApp will continue to protect peoples' ability to communicate privately.' Meta said the vulnerability has been patched and they have not detected subsequent attacks. Meta also sent a cease-and-desist letter to Paragon. Last month, a California court awarded Meta $168 million in damages from Israel's NSO Group, whose spyware was used to hack 1,400 WhatsApp accounts, including of journalists, activists and government officials. Journalists targeted The Citizen Lab's findings, released today, show that the use of spyware against journalists has continued, despite the backlash against NSO Group, and establish for the first time that Paragon was able to successfully infect Apple devices. Ciro Pellegrino, who heads the Naples newsroom of an investigative news outlet called received a notice on April 29 that his iPhone had been targeted. Last year, Fanpage secretly infiltrated the youth wing of Meloni's Brothers of Italy party and filmed some of them making fascist and racist remarks. Pellegrino's colleague, Fanpage editor-in-chief Francesco Cancellato, also received a notice from Meta that his Android device had been targeted by Paragon spyware, though forensic evidence that his phone was actually infected with Graphite hasn't yet surfaced, according to Citizen Lab. The Citizen Lab's report today also revealed a third case, of a 'prominent European journalist,' who asked to remain anonymous, but is connected to the Italian cluster by forensic evidence unearthed by researchers at the laboratory, which is run out of the Munk School at the University of Toronto. The Citizen Lab, which has analyzed all the devices, said the attack came via iMessage, and that Apple has patched the vulnerability. Apple did not respond immediately to requests for comment. 'Paragon is now mired in exactly the kind of abuse scandal that NSO Group is notorious for,' said John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab. 'This shows the industry and its way of doing business is the problem. It's not just a few bad apples.' Stealthy spyware Paragon's spyware is especially stealthy because it can compromise a device without any action from the user. Similar to the NSO Group's notorious Pegasus spyware, which has been blacklisted by the U.S. government, Graphite allows the operator to covertly access applications, including encrypted messengers like Signal and WhatsApp. 'There's no link to click, attachment to download, file to open or mistake to make,' Scott-Railton said. 'One moment the phone is yours, and the next minute its data is streaming to an attacker.' Parliamentary oversight COPASIR, the parliamentary committee overseeing the Italian secret services, took the rare step last week of making public the results of its investigation into the government's use of Paragon. The COPASIR report said that Italian intelligence services hadn't spied on Cancellato, the editor of Fanpage. The report did confirm the surveillance, with tools including Graphite, of civil society activists, but said they had been targeted legally and with government authorization — not as activists but over their work related to irregular immigration and national security. Giovanni Donzelli, vice president of COPASIR and a prominent member of Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, declined further comment Thursday, saying the parliamentary report was 'more relevant than an analysis done by a privately funded Canadian laboratory.' Citizen Lab says it's 'rigorously independent,' and doesn't accept research funding from governments or companies. Italy and Paragon both say they've terminated their relationship, but offer starkly different versions of the breakup. Paragon referred questions to a statement it gave to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, in which the company said that it stopped providing spyware to Italy after the government declined its offer to help investigate Cancellato's case. Italian authorities, however, said they had rejected Paragon's offer over national security concerns and ended the relationship following media outcry. U.S. contracts Paragon has been keen to deflect reputational damage that could, in theory, impact its contracts with the U.S. government. A 2023 executive order, which so far hasn't been overturned by U.S. President Donald Trump, prohibits federal government departments and agencies from acquiring commercial spyware that has been misused by foreign governments, including to limit freedom of expression and political dissent. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security awarded Paragon a one-year, $2 million contract last September for operations and support of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, public records show. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has also reportedly used the spyware. In December 2022, Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who at the time chaired the House Intelligence Committee, wrote to the administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration questioning whether the DEA's use of Graphite spyware undermined efforts to deter the 'broad proliferation of powerful surveillance capabilities to autocratic regimes and others who may misuse them.' ___ Byron Tau in Washington, and Lorne Cook in Brussels, contributed to this report.
