It was planned to come to an agreement at the Council meeting on the most important guidelines for operation of the EU agricultural sector next EU programming period 2028-2034, however, Member States could not agree on equalizing of direct payments that is main priority for Latvia.
In order to emphasize differences among Member States in levels of direct payments and to find solutions for equalizing of the direct payments, in the result of an intensive work, Latvia’s proposal have also been heard of. Unfortunately, in spite of several attempts to reach a compromise and due to too differing opinions, Member States failed to reach a common position of the Council. The State Secretary, Raivis Kronbergs points out: “Until we altogether will not restore farmers’ trust in Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) both with practical work and political decisions and until there are inequality in agricultural support among Member States, and the farmer is not the center of attention, it will not be possible to reach the compromise. “
The issue of a sustainable fishing in the EU waters in 2025 has also been addressed at the Council meeting as one of the main points of agenda. Latvia acknowledges concerns that due to the environmental condition, fish stocks in the Baltic Sea are reducing, therefore it drew the attention to additional threat – Russia’s continuous and conscious targeted fishing, which does not comply with scientific recommendations. Latvia asked the European Commission (EC) to evaluate this circumstance and not place all the responsibility for reducing fish stocks solely on the EU fishermen who for many years now have been complying with the catch amount and other protection measures, recommended by researchers.
Latvia repeatedly calls for the ban on imports from Russia to the EU of agricultural products, including fishing products, “stresses Raivis Kronbergs.
At the Council meeting, heated discussions were on the proposal from EC and its vision on the way how to ensure a uniform approach at the EU level to obtaining of data on forests. Latvia as well as other Member States indicated to the necessity to take into consideration and as the basis the solutions, currently implemented in Member States. At the same time, Latvia and other Member States pointed out that accuracy of data and confidentiality are significant aspects in implementation of this regulation.