George Lyon, Liberal Democrat MEP for Scotland, has hailed the European Agriculture Committee’s support for his CAP report as a "huge step" towards a fair, sustainable and green future for the farming community.

George Lyon MEPThe Agriculture Committee overwhelmingly backed Mr Lyon’s report on the future reform of the CAP after 2013. The next step is for the report to be discussed by the full European Parliament with a vote expected in early July.

Commenting after the vote, Mr Lyon said:

"I’m delighted that the Agriculture Committee has fully backed the reforms I set out in my CAP report. The heart of the report – a fair, sustainable and green future for farming – has been safeguarded after months of building cooperation and coalitions across Europe.

“Scotland’s agricultural sector needs the reformed CAP to be robust, and to strike a delicate balance between producing the food we need while competing in a competitive market place.

"Most importantly, the Committee has supported maintaining the current CAP budget giving a stable platform to implement reforms.

"It is clear that in the future farmers and producers will need to do more with less. That is why MEPs have voted in favour of linking farmers' direct payments to their efforts to cut carbon emissions.

"The Committee also resisted calls for the re-nationalisation of agricultural policy, to move from historic payments to area based payments and to ensure fair trade for farmers who are competing with giant supermarkets. There will also be action to end slipper farmers.

"This is a fair, sustainable and green package that will now go before Parliament as a whole. I have every confidence that it will clear that next hurdle."