On Monday February 26, the Minister for Agriculture, Armands Krauze, in Brussels, at the meeting of the EU Council of Ministers for Agriculture and Fishery, together with Ministers of other Member States searched a solution to a quick and adequate response to the current crisis situation in the sector of agriculture in Europe. The Minister for Agriculture emphasized that the detaled environmental and climate requirements set up by the reformed EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have created disproportionate burden for farmers, which taking account of unfavorable climate conditions and complicated market situation, have placed the sector of agriculture in financial difficulties, jeopardizing viability and competitiveness of the sector.
The Minister for Agriculture, Armands Krauze: “After the first operating year of the reformed CAP, it is clear that it is excessively detailed, laying down unnecessary complicated requirements particularly in the sytem of conditions and schemes of the environment and climate support. CAP must be immediately amended and adjusted according to the current situation so that farmers could perform their primary task – food production, which is especially significant in circumstances when food safety is a question of strategic significance. CAP and its national strategy plans must be laconic, simple and flexible, being able to adjust to changeable conditions and crisis situations. Unfortunately, the current CAP version is not able to offer farmers adequate support indtruments at the right time, and it is not acceptable particularly in the present difficult circumstances.”
The new EU environmental and climate regulations are becoming more and more ambitious, but their funding is placed on CAP and this means on farmers’ shoulders. The Minister for Agriculture is pointing out: if such high additional objectives have been set up then an additional funding must also been earmarked because CAP budget alone is not and will not be able to achieve all of them.
The Ministry of Agriculture is also convinced that requirements of good agricultural and environmental conditions (LLVS) must be revised. They must not considerably restrict agricultural activity and create additional costs for farmers besides they must take account of specific practices applied in Member States. Currently some LLVS standards create considerable restristions for agriultural actvivity and jeopardize farmers’ competitiveness.
During the Council meeting, the Minister for Agriculture also met the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski. In their talks, apart from the aforementionet issues, the need was emphasised once more to achieve the EU level decision on the ban on imports of food and agricultural goods from Russia and Belorus. Just as Armands Krauze stressed that immediately, already this year, it is necessary to increase the admissible threshold of the State aid de minimis, taking into consideration growing cost and high interes rates.