Lyon: Battle begins to get CAP reform report through the European Parliament

11.00.53am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 19th May 2010

George Lyon, Liberal Democrat MEP for Scotland, has begun three weeks of intensive negotiation to ensure that the report he authored on CAP reform will pass through the European Parliament.

Yesterday's Agriculture Committee meeting was the beginning of a process that will conclude with a vote on it in Committee on June 15th followed by a final vote by the full Parliament in the plenary session starting on July 5th.

The report has attracted 782 amendments and the negotiations will concentrate on agreeing compromises which will strengthen the report and set out a clear agenda for the reform of the CAP.

Commenting Mr Lyon said:

"There was widespread support from across the political groups for the proposals set out in my report which seeks to make the CAP fairer, greener and more sustainable.

"There are, however, still areas where clear differences exist such as whether to re-regulate the markets and bring back milk quotas, the desire to go beyond 2020 for phasing in the move from historic to area based payments, and big differences on the criteria to be used for distribution of single farm payments to member states.

"The next three weeks will be a battle to get the CAP farmers deserve. I am confident that we can find common ground on these issues and win over enough votes to get the report through Committee in June."