Under the rules of the Common Agricultural Policy the UK has no authority to cap payments to farmers and farm businesses. Nor do we think it is an effective or rational way of distributing farm support.
The European Commission proposed a cap of 300,000 euros as part of Agenda 2000. We opposed this on the basis it would: distort the industry by discouraging the adoption of sensible, market-based, business models; prove administratively burdensome; and imbalance the CAP budget by further penalising net contributors like the UK and Germany.