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Agriland

Gorman: EU budget changes ‘risk undermining support for farming'

The president of the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA), Francie Gorman has said that changes to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) budget would have a 'devastating impact' on supports for rural Ireland. Copa Cogeca, the umbrella organisation representing farmers and agricultural cooperatives, confirmed that a 'pan-European flash action' against changes to the CAP budget will take place in Brussels tomorrow, May 20. The IFA is a member of Copa, while the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society's (ICOS) is a member of Cogeca. The demonstration will coincide with the Annual EU Budget Conference 2025 where the next long-term union budget will be discussed. The IFA president will attend tomorrow's protest in Brussels, where he is hoping to engage with MEPs and members of the EU Commission. He told Agriland: '(We are) protesting against the possible proposals to have a single fund for all EU expenditure, with none of it ring fenced specifically for agriculture. 'At the drop of the hat, they could pull money out of that and put it into defence, or put it into something else.' 'Since the foundation of the EU, there has always been a designated common agricultural policy to protect farming across the European Union. It's the one common policy that we have in Europe, without it, we risk undermining the support for farming,' he explained. According to the IFA president, the EU needs both a dedicated CAP budget, and an increased CAP budget that goes 'over and beyond' the previous CAP. EU budget To coincide with the protest in Brussels, similar protests will take place tomorrow across all 27 EU member states. Ireland's protest will take place in Dublin, and will be led by IFA deputy president Alice Doyle and ICOS president, Edward Carr. According to the IFA president, the group of protestors is set to meet at the Irish Farm Centre, Dublin, at 8:00am tomorrow morning. The group will then travel to the European Commission's building, Mount Street, Dublin 2, for the protest.