István Jakab: We must respond to agricultural challenges with competitive farming

István Jakab spoke about: it is of utmost importance that agricultural subsidies reach their destination on time, quickly, accurately, and professionally, and that Hungarian farmers develop a good strategy, because the challenges are huge. Therefore, very organized production must be continued, and a production structure is needed that helps farmers’ competitiveness – he added. Ukraine’s plan for accelerated EU accession and its associated membership will create a new situation if the borders are opened and a significant amount of agricultural raw materials and finished products flow into the EU. This is compounded by the volume of goods arriving under the Mercosur agreement, he said. He indicated that if it were to be implemented, this would not only have a serious impact on the competitiveness, markets and food economy of EU agriculture, but would also pose a danger to citizens if they were flooded with products produced under different conditions and rules from non-EU states. That is why it is a question of paramount importance what dangers the planned change in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) strategy would entail, he underlined. He mentioned as an example from the drafts that the EU would not pay support above 100 thousand euros, and that farmers who have reached retirement age and are not full-time workers would not be able to apply for such funds. In relation to the latter, he noted that the proportion of farmers over 65 is currently 54 percent, and by the time the measure comes into force, it would reach 60 percent.

József Viski, the State Secretary responsible for agricultural and rural development subsidies at the Ministry of Agriculture (AM), called it important to simplify the control and administration tasks of agricultural subsidies and to speed up payments

He highlighted that in the current, 7-year EU budget cycle, they have to decide on 5,400 billion forints of support, part of which is area-based support affecting nearly 150,000 farmers, while about 3,300 billion forints are investment and development resources. He pointed out that the use of 5,400 billion forints was made possible by the fact that, although Hungary received significantly less money from the EU, the government was the only one of the member state cabinets to decide on the highest possible national co-financing of 80 percent.

András Cseh Tibor, Secretary General of MAGOSZ and Vice President of NAK, said: they have recently held talks with the V4 plus countries

Their position is that they completely reject the European Commission’s proposal to withdraw EU agricultural subsidies and allow for much more intensive imports from outside the EU than before. He indicated that they have agreed to hold a joint farmers’ demonstration with the participation of 10,000 farmers on December 18, the day of the EU Heads of State and Government meeting, in the city centre of Brussels, which is preparing for the Christmas market.

MTI