NFU president Ben Gill will be following developments at next month's Agriculture Council when crucial decisions regarding the future of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) are planned.

The meetings will be held over June 11 and 12 in Luxembourg with EU ministers expected to agree a package of reform measures.

Key issues that the NFU want resolved are decoupling – replacing commodity-based subsidies with a single farm payment, and modulation/degressivity – shifting payments from different parts of the CAP budget to pay for rural development and other reform measures.

Gill said: 'We favour decoupling, which could bring about much improved market focus and significantly reduce the administrative burden. But the need to find a compromise has led to suggestions of various models of partial decoupling, which could lead to increased bureaucracy and, at worst would continue to lock farmers into production patterns which do not reflect the market.' Speaking about modulation/degressivity Gill commented: 'The NFU accepts the need for modulation but the proposed tiered system is unacceptable because it would penalise larger, more efficient farms.' There are many other issues crucial to the success of the reform package including; changes to farm businesses during or after the reference period and redistribution of payments between supported and unsupported sector. Gill said: 'The devil is in the detail and we need to get this right for the reform to be a meaningful success.'