In the end, it was perhaps no surprise that the EU Budget talks have collapsed. The 27 Member States arrived with different priorities and different negotiating positions. It was always going to be hard to crack this in one go. They have decided to reconvene in January 2013.
But this is an opportunity for politicians to go back to the drawing-board.
We were getting increasingly concerned that the best bits of the budget were getting hammered. For example, the part of the Budget that rewards farmers for doing good things for wildlife (the so-called Pilla II) was under huge pressure. Every time we looked at the figures things seemed to be getting worse: anything between 20-33% cuts. And rumours emerging from today's talks suggested that all the environmental measures in the Budget were getting squeezed.
This horse-trading is bad news for all of us. We want our politicians to be arguing for the best value from the one trillion euros of European tax payers money and support things that the public want. I have seen no sign of this to date.
If we want to recover our farmland wildlife (which politicians across Europe including the UK increasingly say that they do) then we need to find ways to continue to support those farmers who are doing the right things for wildlife. The funding through agri-environment schemes means that farmers can provide a lifeline to species like turtle dove, help to recover skylark populations and put the colour back into the countryside.
I have been delighted that, over the past week, so many farmers have provided a strong defence of this funding. The two month break in talks should allow politicians to listen to these farmers and think again about how we should spend a trillion euros and help recover farmland wildlife.
What do you think about the collapse of these talks? Good news or bad news for farmland wildlife?
It would be great to hear your views
I think, the suspension of the talks is very likely a good thing for farmland wildlife. In the very fractious atmosphere of the last two days, it was very likely the Pillar 2/Environmental budget would have been an easy target for considerable financial reduction. The delay in the talks until the New Year may enable a more considered approach to be taken and give more time for lobbying to "knock some sense into the participants heads". I have heard that if the talks in he New Year remain deadlocked, they may consider agreeing an EU budget on a year by year basis. Whatever happens, it will still be a busy lobbying time between now and when the talks resume in Brussels.
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