Polish minister: the EU green agreement is too much of a burden for Polish agriculture

By: STA Date: 2024. 01. 29. 09:30

The European Green Agreement is too much of a burden for Polish agriculture, the Ministry of Agriculture in Warsaw will strive to change this, Minister of Agriculture Czeslaw Siekierski announced on Friday.

(Photo: Pixabay)

A politician from the Polish Peasants’ Party (PSL), which forms the broad Polish government coalition, told the PAP news agency that the European Union’s climate neutrality project to be implemented by 2050 “puts too much of a burden” on the Polish agricultural sector, increases its costs, and reduces its competitiveness. He confirmed the position expressed by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Michal Kolodziejczak in an interview with the commercial channel Radio Zet, according to which certain elements of the green transition can be called a “nightmare” from the point of view of Poland. The Ministry of Agriculture in Warsaw will strive to “limit and modify the most unreasonable elements of the Green Agreement after negotiations”, Siekierski indicated.

In Thursday’s radio interview, Michal Kolodziejczak criticized, among other things, that according to Annex 8 of the Standard for the Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition of Land (GAEC), which entered into force on January 1st, farms with arable land larger than 10 hectares are obliged to leave 4 percent of it fallow.

Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski stated at the press conference in Brussels following Tuesday’s meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council, which brings together the agriculture ministers of the EU member states, that he supports European farmers being exempted from the requirements of Annex 8. As he said, he also represented this position at the meeting. He added: “political will is also necessary” within the European Commission to implement the requirement. Protests against the EU’s green agreement and the unlimited European import of Ukrainian products have been taking place across Europe in recent days, and Polish farmers also demonstrated on Wednesday.

MTI