The next European Commissioner for Agriculture must fight for a stronger budget for farmers, the outgoing commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski has said.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal this week, he said that money continues to the be a major issue for farmers in the EU.

The CAP budget for the EU for 2021 to 2027 is €387bn and when asked what he thinks the budget should be, he replied that 0.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) is not enough to tackle food security challenges and the many other obligations facing farmers.

“My dream is to increase [the budget by] 50% compared to the current budget,” he said. However, he admitted that “as a realist I can say that to achieve the minimum 0.5%” of GDP would be an acceptable outcome.

He also told the Irish Farmers Journal that the Nature Restoration Law should not be funded from the CAP.

The commissioner was asked if the law should have its own budget, to which he replied: “absolutely yes, absolutely”.