European farmers must be protected

By: STA Date: 2025. 03. 03. 10:30

European farmers, the daily bread of European citizens, must be protected – the Minister of Agriculture emphasized on Monday on the M1 current affairs channel. According to István Nagy, this is necessary because the EU proposals aimed at transforming the common agricultural policy – which include, for example, the withdrawal of area-based subsidies and the taxation of livestock farmers – aim to completely transform European agriculture. At the same time, the EU does not perceive that this threatens everyday food security – he noted.

(Photo: drnagyistvan.hu)

The minister highlighted in the Kossuth radio program Good morning, Hungary!: in response to the document prepared by the EU, entitled Strategic Dialogue on Agriculture, during the Hungarian EU presidency, the 27 agriculture ministers formulated a unanimous opinion and put an agreement on the table, which includes the need to maintain area-based subsidies and a separate agricultural budget. In response to all this, however, a committee document was received in which, unfortunately, the prevailing view is still that area-based support is not available to everyone, and that there is no separate agricultural budget – said the minister.

According to István Nagy, all this, combined with Ukraine’s accession to the EU, poses enormous dangers for the Hungarian and the entire European farming community

On the current M1 channel, the minister also pointed out that if the common agricultural policy does not have a separate independent budget, but is merged into the large common framework, then its financing will be immediately terminated as a result of any hypothetical political decision. The minister stated: they do not want and will not accept that the common will of the 27 agricultural ministers does not prevail.

István Nagy also touched on the ongoing agricultural tour, at the stations of which farmers will be told what opportunities they have for development

At the same time, they will also draw their attention to what they could lose, since it will now be decided whether area-based support will remain, whether the common agricultural budget will remain – he added. The minister indicated that after 30 last year, 40 applications will be published this year, and in 2025 we would like to pay 790 billion forints to farmers so that they can develop and move forward. He recalled: when farmers faced challenges such as a historic drought, war, energy crisis, and Brussels sanctions, the Hungarian government gave a historic response and increased the national co-financing rate to 80 percent for Brussels sources, so that out of 100 euros, 20 comes from Brussels and 80 from national sources. With this, the government added 2,300 billion forints to the 600 billion forints received from Brussels, he highlighted. István Nagy spoke on Kossuth Radio about possible price caps, saying that he very much hopes that the negotiations between the Minister of National Economy and the heads of retail chains will lead to results, and that the latter will understand that self-restraint is needed and their margins must be reduced.

MTI