The report was approved by a substantial majority.

Smith has
also published a timetable of the next steps in the reform process now
that reform can commence in earnest, and warned that the whole process
is essentially pointless unless the agriculture share of the EU budget
is not defended and used efficiently.

Having taken part in the
debate in the morning, speaking after the vote, Smith said:

"There is much in this report to be content with, and
considering that some of the member state governments want to stop all
direct support to farmers, it is a relief that the MEPs are clearly on
the side of agriculture.

"Equally, we need to be realistic about where MEPs are in
this process.  Today is the start of the formal process, so the
Commission now has some thinking time over the summer to come up with
their blueprint for reform.  The public debate within the Parliament
will have been useful in working out the view of the MEPs, who will
have full co-decision power on the future reports, where the report
today is not binding.

"The report initially attracted a huge amount of
amendments, but the end result is solid enough, and does state my own
priority that the purpose of the CAP is to produce food.  It is not a
jobs policy, it is not an economic policy, it is not an environmental
policy - the fact that Europe's citizens have been able to get used to
cheap and available food is part of our national security.

"However, where the report does say that, it says a lot of
other things as well, and if everything is a priority nothing is a
priority.  More importantly, if there are a dozen different priorities
within CAP then the budget negotiations will be more and more complex,
and with a number of member states, including the UK, wanting to end
direct payments to farmers we'll have our work cut out for us as the
debate moves on."

TIMELINE ON CAP REFORM

• 19/20 July 2010: "CAP Post 2013" Conference in Brussels, organised
  by the Commission, to round off public consultation.
• November 2010: Presentation by the Commission of a communication on
  the Future of the CAP.First half of 2011: European Parliament
  initiative report on the Commission Communication.
• Mid 2011: Commission presents legislative proposals on CAP reform.
  The European Parliament will produce a legislative report (or reports,
  depending upon the proposed structure of the package), and the Council
  will also negotiate a common position, based on the co-decision
  procedure giving the European parliament full powers.
• End 2012: Agreement must be reached, to enter into force, perhaps
  with phase in periods, by January 2013.

Mr Smith's speech in the debate this morning is below:

Mr President, I shall be no exception in congratulating my
Scottish colleague, George Lyon, on a very solid report. There is much
in this report to be content with and I echo the comments of a number
of colleagues this morning. I particularly like the very clear
reference in the report that food production is the primary purpose of
the common agricultural policy. Everything else is very worthy, very
desirable, but secondary.

We must be clear in our own minds that food security is an
integral part of our European national security and the primary public
benefit of the CAP which is worth paying for in its own right. I pick
up particularly on Mr La Via’s comments on the budget, which have been
echoed by remarkably few colleagues this morning. Perhaps it is a
little stereotypically Scottish to focus so much on the budget, but,
unless we have sufficient monetary resources allocated to this policy,
it is all pointless. I would be grateful for a few words from our
Commissioner about how he proposes to defend that budget going forward,
not least because a number of Member States, including Britain, want
to end direct payments to farmers.

You can, however, rest assured of the support of this House
in maintaining a workable CAP and a workable budget, and this forms a
good basis for ongoing discussion.