The goal of the Hungarian EU presidency is to represent farmer-centered agricultural policy

By: STA Date: 2024. 07. 17. 09:00

The goal of the Hungarian EU presidency is to represent the farmer-friendly agricultural policy, which affects all citizens of the union, because it is important that safe and quality food can be put on everyone’s table – Minister of Agriculture István Nagy told Kossuth radio Good morning, Hungary! in his show on Wednesday.

(Photo: drnagyistvan.hu)

The head of the ministry emphasized that the citizens of Europe live in an environment that is kept in order by the farmers. István Nagy called food produced in Europe, affordable and safely available, which can be traced from the farm to the table, a particularly great advantage. Agricultural subsidies are not only about supplementing the producers’ income, but also about making it worthwhile to cultivate those areas that would not be worth it from an economic point of view, he added. The minister recalled that before the council meeting of the agricultural ministers of the member countries, he had a meeting with the representatives of the European agricultural producers’ interest protection organization (Copa-Cogeca), and they agreed that they would wait for the opinion of the farmers on the current issues before each council meeting. He explained: it is an opportunity for the Hungarian EU presidency that the structure has not yet been established after the European Parliament elections, so there is a chance to formulate expectations and aspects and make recommendations for the continuation of the common agricultural policy. The five main aspects of the Hungarian presidency are competitive, crisis-resistant, sustainable and knowledge-based agriculture, as well as farmer-centered EU agricultural policy, he stated.

The Minister of Agriculture also spoke on the current channel M1: the extreme green ideology left its mark on all agricultural activities in Europe in such a way that farmers lost their competitiveness. Therefore, according to István Nagy, it is no coincidence that huge farmers’ demonstrations were organized in European countries. He mentioned as an example that while the producers were under “green ideological pressure”, they were not protected, they opened the markets of Europe, which were flooded with Ukrainian grain coming from completely different production conditions. It is not possible to build a future this way, which is why the Hungarian presidency wants to reverse the European agricultural policy, he emphasized.

MTI