Spat over Scottish BPS Levels.

The argument about Scotland’s receipts under the CAP has flared again this month.  The Scottish Rural Affairs Secretary, Richard Lochhead has stated that Scotland was likely to end up with the lowest payments per hectare of any country in the EU, both in Pillar 1 and Pillar 2.  It had previously been third-bottom in terms of direct payments, but was going to be ‘leap-frogged’ by Estonia and Lativa as a result of the ‘external convergence’ provisions.  As these only apply at Member State level, the benefit has not flowed to Scotland.  The Secretary also accused DEFRA of not negotiating for Scotland’s interest when it came to Rural Development (Pillar 2) money.

This pressure is partly about securing all of the slight uplift in the UK’s Pillar 1 allocation for Scotland.  (See our CAP Reform Briefing Note of June, section 8.2; or our Seminar Notes uploaded on the October 11^th, for a full explanation of this issue).  However, Mr Lochhead is also a member of the Scottish Nationalist party and there is no doubt an element of wanting to portray the Westminster Government as working against Scotland’s best interest.

The Lib Dem MEP, George Lyon has waded into the debate.  He has a dual interest in that he was one of the MEP’s who was closely involved in negotiating the deal, and also represents a party that is against independence.  Mr Lyon points out that on a per farmer basis rather than per hectare, Scotland gets the second highest levels of payments in the EU, and five times the EU average.  They receive £8,000 per year more than English farmers.  This, of course, is due to the larger average farm sizes seen in Scotland, part of which is a result of extensive hill areas.

What this all proves, other than it is possible to demonstrate anything with statistics, is unclear.  No doubt there will be more such arguments as the allocation of UK funds is debated, and in the run-up to the independence referendum in September 2014.