COMMISSION SPOKESPERSON ACCEPTS RETIRED IRISH FARMERS WERE WRONGED     At a meeting of the Petitions Committee in Brussels on Tuesday, January 24th, a case was presented by the Retired Farmers for Justice campaign seeking to achieve redress for the serious distress and financial hardship caused to them as a result of participating in the Early Retirement Schemes.

Responding to the submission a Commission spokesperson said he realised the seriousness of the wrong done to Irish farmers as a consequence of changes in the CAP and furthermore that National Authorities, in this case the Irish Department of Agriculture and Food, had, perhaps, taken too restrictive an interpretation of the regulation.

Marian Harkin MEP, speaking in support of the retired farmers, asserted that they have not had fair and reasonable treatment.  “This is because their legitimate expectations have not been met due to subsequent changes in the implementation and administration of the Early Retirement Schemes, and also due to the reform of the CAP.  Many farmers have suffered financial losses.  Farmers are highly regulated already and surely they can expect that European regulations should not disadvantage them”, MEP Harkin said.

Furthermore the Chairman of the Committee expressed his sympathy with the farmers and spoke of the difficulties encountered by the “man in the street” when faced with extremely complex bureaucracy.  According to the Chairman Marcin Rabicki, “when the man on the street comes up against National Authorities the law seems to be on the side of the State”, and in this content he proposed that the Petitions Committee write to the Minister for Agriculture laying out the arguments presented and asking that the issues be addressed.  It was also decided to send the petition to the Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament for its recommendations.

A number of other non-Irish MEPs supported the position of the farmers.