Secular Café: European Parliament disappoints

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European Parliament disappoints Mar 13th 2013, 20:26 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21776782 Quote: The European Parliament has rejected campaigners' demands to tie the majority of farm subsidies to protection of the environment. It now looks inevitable that farmers will continue to receive most of their 58bn-euro (£50bn) annual subsidies for doing little more than owning land. MEPs agreed that farmers should work for 30% of their payments by operating in a way that benefits wildlife. But they delayed and watered down the changes proposed by the Commission. Environmentalists were demanding that 10% of farmland should be secured for wildlife through subsidies. MEPs decided the figure should start at 3%, stepping gradually to 5% and maybe ultimately 7%. Greens had mustered a big public campaign for radical reform. A poll from the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England suggested that 84% of people wanted farmers to protect wildlife and the countryside... ...Tycho Vandermaesen from the green group WWF said: "It is a relief that some of the more ridiculous proposals to undermine the greening have not been accepted. But overall this is a very weak package - this is very far from what the citizens of Europe have been demanding." The BirdLife campaigner Trees Robijns accused the MEPs of confusion and incoherence. "This is very, very disappointing. Obviously it is not as completely awful as it might have been but this was supposed to be a radical reform of the CAP and we are not seeing that."... ...The CAP costs each British taxpayer around £400 a year, according to the Taxpayers' Alliance. Some of that cash will continue to subsidise tobacco farmers, following Wednesday's vote - despite Europe-wide efforts to reduce smoking. Parliament did agree that income from subsidies should not exceed 300,000 euros for any individual farm. But critics warn that farmers will simply split farms administratively, to gain their maximum subsidies. Hop on the gravy train if you can!

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