'Help Our Young Farmers' Says Scots Euro-MP

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 17th Jan 2001

Liberal Democrat MEP for Scotland, Elspeth Attwooll, has backed a call in the European Parliament this week for new measures to help young farmers struggling with high installation costs, uncertain economic prospects and a burden of red tape. In a resolution passed on Wednesday, MEPs called on the EU and national governments to take action to address the specific problems of young farmers in Scotland and elsewhere in Europe.

"Young farmers represent the future of farming, and play a very important role in our rural communities," said Ms Attwooll. "But they face a tough deal with high land prices, prohibitive installation costs, and the current production quota system. We want to introduce specific policies to tackle these problems before the trickle of young farmers leaving the land turns into a flood."

Among other measures, the report calls for governments to allocate more production rights, offer interest rate subsidies and give assistance with credit terms to young farmers. Help would also be given to train young farmers in how to get the most out of the benefits available to them.

But whilst firmly backing the Parliament's proposals, Ms Attwooll also criticised the Conservative party's stance on the issue: "The Conservative party attacks the EU almost daily, but at the same time this welcome report was drafted by one of their own MEPs and is calling for action through the very mechanisms the Tories usually criticise."