It would be disadvantageous if the European Commission also tied the payment of agricultural funds to political conditions

(Photo: AM)

István Nagy, speaking to Hungarian journalists after a two-day meeting of the member states’ agricultural ministers, said: the European Commission does not understand how farmers operate. It does not understand what effects the seven-year budget draft after 2027, which it intends to force down the throats of the farming community, will have. The issue at stake is how the available resources will be distributed: will most of the money go to Ukraine or will it stay here in the European Union, he explained. The minister said that they want to radically reform the budget, the entire structure and the implementation of the “well-proven” common agricultural policy, which – he emphasized – will have serious consequences. According to the long-term EU budget draft, Hungarian farmers would receive twenty percent less resources than the current one. Together with the inflationary effect, the result would be “even more terrible and even more negative”, István Nagy drew attention. He added that the EU Commission does not take into account that the payment of area-based support has a completely different structure than, for example, investment support. According to him, this is also negative, since they would “make political goals compete” with each other. Difficult decisions would be pushed from Brussels to the level of the member states to discuss whether to use the resources to help disadvantaged regions catch up or to finance agricultural support, he explained. Such measures cannot be allowed to continue, said István Nagy, then expressed his hope that the message would reach the EU Commission and that they would understand how important it is to represent the interests of European farmers. He stated that the aim of the restructuring of the common agricultural policy budget is to hide that the budget will be smaller and to hide that EU funds are intended to be reallocated to Ukraine and that they are intended to implement developments there. The measures will help Ukraine become a member of the European Union as soon as possible, without any preparation, said the Minister of Agriculture, quoting the statement of former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who said that if Ukraine were to be admitted in this state, it would mean the end of the European Union. Ukraine’s agriculture and food industry are not prepared to comply with European Union rules, he pointed out. “We would like the leaders of the European Union, including Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, to hear these sentences and start protecting the interests of the European Union, because our competitiveness is there, our vision is there, and we do not want our security to go down as a result of irresponsible Brussels politics,” he said. István Nagy also stated that both the planned free trade agreement with Ukraine and the free trade agreement with South American countries (Mercosur) could have a negative impact and pose dangers for Hungarian agriculture and the internal markets of the European Union. According to him, concluding a free trade agreement with Ukraine until the country becomes a member of the European Union entails enormous dangers. Attention must be drawn to these dangers, because the sectors concerned and those working there will be completely impossible in the European Union. This must be fought with full force, he stated. Since the opinions of the bordering member states were not taken into account during the preparation of the agreement, and since the interests of Hungarian farmers are not taken into account in the European Union, Hungary opposes both Mercosur and the planned agreement with Ukraine, he stated. “We will continue to keep our borders closed to Ukraine and will keep them closed until an agreement acceptable to Hungary, safe, predictable in the long term and sustainable is reached,” the Minister of Agriculture added in his statement.

AM/MTI