French-Hungarian cooperation for the future of European agriculture

(Photo: AM)

The minister drew attention to the need to maintain the predictability and stability of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in order to ensure that nothing can endanger the livelihood, competitiveness and food security of farmers. Our country remains interested in the CAP having a separate budget and two pillars, as this means the long-term sustainability of European agriculture and the food industry. This system cannot be radically changed, because then producers and our daily bread would be at risk. That is why Hungary is ready to go to the extreme to protect the EU funds due to farmers, he added.

István Nagy said that a generational change and the renewal of the entire agriculture and food industry are currently taking place in our country.

That is why Hungary is uniquely providing farmers with the highest co-financing in Europe, 80 percent, in addition to EU subsidies. This means that three times as much money is available for the development of agriculture as in the previous financing cycle. In this way, we are not only increasing the profitability and added value of farmers, but also modernizing the entire sector and placing it on a new foundation. The minister also mentioned that in Hungary, great attention is paid to the effects of free trade agreements on agriculture. That is why our country opposes the unlimited influx of Ukrainian agricultural products into the EU, and we do not support the EU-Mercosur agreement in its current form, just as France does not. We continue to consider the principle of the so-called “mirror clause” to be of paramount importance: according to which food arriving in the European Union must comply with the same rules and regulations as food produced in the EU.

The Minister explained that a change of approach is also needed in the field of animal health

It is an important result that European livestock is free of viruses. However, diseases cause such great economic damage that they are difficult to treat. In order to effectively protect against epidemics, the issue of vaccination must be re-examined and put on the agenda of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting, István Nagy emphasized.

AM