EU faces deep cuts in meat market intervention budget

Heads of government will meet in Brussels to agree an overall 2014-20 EU spending deal. Officials warn new proposals from European Council president Herman van Rompuy demand additional de facto cuts of 10.8% in all Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) spending - above an already planned 12% reduction.

Food production support is being targeted by governments wanting reduced EU spending to ease Europe's financial crisis, although the cuts have been opposed by the European Parliament and the European Commission.

Commenting, EU agriculture spokesman Roger Waite warned: "This would severely disrupt our system of direct payments, and devastate future rural development programmes. Every element of CAP spending is facing cuts."

Vulnerable meat and livestock programmes include: this year's annual beef and veal market refunds for producers, refunds for live beef and veal cattle, refunds for pork producers facing low prices, refunds for storage of unsold pork, and refunds for poultry producers.

One official highlighted geographically-remote food production as one area "probably" facing especially "substantial cuts". This budget covers EU-run territories in the Caribbean, South America and the Indian Ocean. French Guyana, for instance, exports turkey and pork.

Rural development spending would be cut 19% under van Rompuy's proposals, which cover meat sectors in poorer rural areas where livestock can be a dominant industry.