On Monday, January 27, Kaspars Gerhards, the Minister for Agriculture, will participate in the EU Council of Ministers for Agriculture and Fisheries in Brussels, where the European Commission (COM) will introduce agricultural aspects of the European Green Deal to the EU Member States. The European Green Deal is a new growth strategy with a view to transfer the EU into a just and prosperous society with a state-of-art, resource-effective and competitive economy where glass-house gas (GHG) emissions would be reduced to zero by 2050 and the economic growth would not be linked to utilization of resources. In order to implement the European Green Deal, COM will also revise its policies in the area of food and agriculture.
The Ministry of Agriculture points out that the achievement of the said ambitions objectives set up in the strategic documents, planned by COM, would require additional funding. Implementation of these tasks in agriculture only by means of the curtailed funding, available for the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), could not be enough. Therefore, it is essential that all the Member States and sectors would have access to additional support mechanisms otherwise it will be complicated to achieve the European Green Deal objectives.
Latvia emphasizes that not only it is necessary to focus on measures reducing GHG emissions, but just as important are the measures increasing CO2 sequestration in soil and biomass. Besides, it must be noted that already now, in Latvia, forests are covering more than the half of the territory of the country, this in itself is an indication of a limited afforestation potential as envisaged by COM.
It is planned that on January 27, Kaspars Gerhards, the Minister for Agriculture will meet Virginijus Sinkevičius, the Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, and discuss topical issues of the fisheries sector, and with Peter Jahr, Member –rapporteur of the Agricultural and Rural Development Committee of the European Parliament, whom the Minister will present Latvia’s position in the major issues of CAP reform and the EU multiannual budget.