EU farm policy reform seen affecting land prices

Plans for a more equal share-out of direct subsidies to farmers in different European Union countries are set to affect farmland prices from 2014, a senior EU official said on 6 April 2011.

The bloc's executive, the European Commission, has called for greater equality in the distribution of direct payments between old and new EU member states as part of the upcoming reform of the €55 billion a year Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Direct payments currently account for about 70% of the annual CAP budget but while the EU average rate is about €250 per hectare, actual levels vary from more than €500 per hectare in Greece to less than €100 in Latvia.

ESO: Background information: The common agricultural policy after 2013 http://www.europeansources.info/record/the-history-of-the-common-agricultural-policy/

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