Brussels – Sweden will push the European Union to cut the subsidies it gives to farmers when it takes over the bloc’s presidency in July, the country’s agriculture minister said Tuesday.

Such a move would be certain to spark a fight with some of the EU’s biggest states.

“The Swedish government holds that the share of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the whole EU budget has to be decreased,” Eskil Erlandsson told journalists in Brussels after a meeting with EU counterparts.

Sweden also wants the EU to reduce the amount of money it pays directly to farmers, instead spending more on projects designed to boost the economy in rural areas.

This would “make the CAP more legitimate among taxpayers, but also make farmers more competitive,” Erlandsson said.

Such proposals are likely to provoke a fierce fight with France, Spain and Germany, whose farmers currently receive close on 50 per cent of all the EU’s direct payments.

Sweden takes over the EU’s rotating presidency on July 1, for six months before handing the baton on to Spain on January 1. Any reforms to the CAP would only enter into force from 2013.

“We have to start the debate now so we have a solution by 2013,” Erlandsson said.

At present, roughly a third of the EU’s 120-billion-euro (168-billion-dollar) annual budget is spent on aid to farmers, with a further 10 billion euros allocated to rural development.

The CAP is one of the EU’s most controversial, as well as costly, policies. Proposals to reform or reduce it regularly lead to heated confrontations between member states. (dpa)