LONDON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Substantial cuts should be made to the budget for the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and elements that distort trade should be reformed, Britain said in a response to EU Commission proposals.
UK farming and environment minister Caroline Spelman sent the response to EU farm commission Dacian Ciolos on Thursday.
The European Commission has tabled a policy paper on reform of the 55 billion euro ($75.38 billion) a year CAP from 2014, but crucially it contained no figures on the future size of the CAP budget..
France has been among those countries seeking to defend the farm budget from the deep cuts sought by Britain.
"The CAP cannot be immune to the hard choices being made elsewhere in the EU. There must therefore be a very substantial cut to the CAP budget in the next financial framework," Britain's response, which it released to journalists on Friday, said.
Britain said successive CAP reforms had moved towards greater market orientation and an increased focus on delivery of public benefits in return for farm expenditure.
"The UK wants to see an acceleration of this process...We also want to see reform of trade-distorting elements of the CAP, particularly with respect to subsidies," the response said. (Reporting by Nigel Hunt; Editing by Anthony Barker)