On May 26 and 27, at the meeting of the EU Council of Ministers for Agriculture and Fisheries (CMAF), Ministers of Member States discussed the reform of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). There were active discussions and an attempt to agree on CAP reform proposals however, no agreement has been achieved between the EU Council and the European Parliament.
In the discussions, Latvia pointed out that the agreement on acceptable conditions of the EU Green Deal that will have to be met by farmers and food producers, is a priority issue for Latvia. According to the current position of the European Commission (COM), a lot of obligatory environmental and climate requirements will be imposed on farmers moreover, additionally COM has planned to channel a considerable share of direct payments to eco-schemes.
Kaspars Gerhards, the Minister: “The Common Agricultural Policy reform must not impair competitiveness of Latvian framers. Direct payments, Latvian farmers are receiving, are by 20% less than the EU average. If 20% or even more must be deducted from the direct payment envelope and channeled to eco-schemes, there is a risk that Latvia will not be able to ensure even the current level of basic income support for farmers, as a result our farmers will be placed in unequal competition conditions as compared with farmers in other EU Member States. Therefore, we request that the fixed amount of funding, earmarked for green measures, must not exceed 20%, laid down in the general position of the Council”.
Latvia considers that the Council must not give in to the European Parliament to even more increase the share, which from direct payments must be channeled to implementation of the environmental and climate measures.