General Secretary Magosz: with the elimination of area-based subsidies, domestic family farms should be liquidated

András Tibor Cseh explained that agricultural subsidies ensure that consumers get the healthiest food on their tables and that farmers are competitive with farms outside Europe. The stakes are high, since the common agricultural policy (CAP) accounts for about a third of the entire EU budget, the European Commission would abolish this system completely – the Secretary General stressed. He emphasized that, with Ukraine’s accession to the EU, which Brussels is looking forward to, a lot of resources should be regrouped, which the decision-makers in Brussels would do in part from the CAP. According to his words, if the conditions for the payment of agricultural subsidies set for the fulfillment of the rule of law conditions are realized, then we must prepare for the fact that Hungary will not receive any funds. “Now, in Hungary, we are standing up to ensure that farmers retain their competitiveness and their previous subsidies,” said András Tibor Cseh. He pointed out that half of family farms have disappeared in Western Europe in the last thirty years due to the transition to large farms, but in Eastern Europe they can still maintain the smaller model, but this should be eliminated by eliminating area-based subsidies. The products of Hungarian family farms are at a competitive disadvantage on the market, for example, compared to cheaper labor and products produced in an uncontrolled manner in Ukraine, as well as due to the increasingly large amount of EU subsidies granted to the country, and this threatens Hungarian farmers with bankruptcy – General Secretary Magosz explained. He added that the European Commission’s draft regarding the withdrawal of subsidies would clearly put non-European producers in a position against Hungarian producers. András Tibor Cseh said that in order to avoid this situation and to inform farmers, the Magosz and National Chamber of Agriculture (NAK) started traveling around the country, and at the same time they launched an online petition, which is available on the website agrarpeticio.hu. The first round of the country tour ends in December and will continue next January, and Magosz and NAK will deliver the petition to European decision-makers.

MTI