The report on the KAP strategic dialogue is unacceptable

By: STA Date: 2024. 09. 11. 09:30

The V4 agricultural chambers call on the leadership of the European Farmers and European Producer Cooperatives (Copa-Cogeca) to withdraw their support for the report on the strategic dialogue of the Common Agricultural Policy. The working document is against the interests of EU producers and consumers.

(Photo: Pixabax)

The contents of the “sectoral strategic dialogue” launched under the auspices of the European Commission and the report on it are unacceptable. Instead of better supporting European producers in a challenging environment, more anti-farmer measures would be introduced.

The Commission and Copa-Cogeca did not meaningfully involve the interest protection organizations and agricultural chambers representing Central European farmers in this dialogue

The recently published official summary document on the dialogue contains numerous proposed measures that put EU farmers and consumers at an even greater disadvantage. Thus, for example, an income-based support system would be introduced instead of a territory-based one, which, according to some ideas, could be used to prepare for Ukraine’s possible accession to the EU. In addition, the document includes tax reductions in the consumption of meat and animal products, as well as reductions in animal husbandry.

For years, agriculture has practically been a stepchild of the EU’s agricultural policy, which is basically shaped not by those active in the agricultural field, but by anti-agriculture and representatives of external interests.

The leaders of the agricultural chambers of the V4 countries firmly protest against this kind of stealthy legislation, which has already been typical of the Commission, and demand that the organizations representing the farmers of the region can participate meaningfully in the strategic negotiations. At the meeting of the V4 Chambers of Agriculture held recently in Budapest, the leaders of the Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Slovak Chambers of Agriculture firmly agreed: the anti-farmer report published by the Commission on the dialogue is unacceptable. The V4s call on Copa-Cogeca to publicly withdraw its support for the report, and they also stand for the Commission to provide producers with resources commensurate with the strategic importance of agriculture. In addition, it is essential that the production of goods from third countries is also subject to the regulations applicable to EU producers. In addition to climate change and many other challenges, the activities of EU farmers are also made more difficult by the unjustifiably stricter EU regulations. In the future, Brussels must help their sustainable production much more markedly, both regulatory and financially, and Copa-Cogeca must pay attention to the interests of all EU producers.

NAK