BERLIN (Reuters) – The European Union needs to reduce subsidies as part of pending reforms to cope with an expected 3 billion euro (£2.5 billion) drop in the EU’s agriculture budget once Britain leaves the bloc, EU farm chief Phil Hogan was quoted as saying on Saturday.
The German magazine Der Spiegel quoted Hogan as saying that farmers who adopted sustainable farming practices should benefit the most from future subsidies.
“If farmers want to get direct subsidies, they need to contribute more to achieve common goals,” he told the magazine.
Hogan said he planned to reintroduce a proposal that Germany had thus far rejected, which calls for significant reductions in subsidies to larger recipients.
“We have to find ways to get more money to small- and medium-sized farms,” he said.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, editing by David Evans)
