NAK: consumers would also be adversely affected by the withdrawal of EU agricultural subsidies

(Photo: AI)

The interest groups object to the fact that the European Commission would finance Ukraine’s accession to the EU with the radical reduction announced in June. In their opinion, the planned restructuring of the EU financing cycle after 2027 and the cuts in area-based payments pose a serious threat to EU farmers, as it would make agriculture and the processing industry impossible, and products from third countries of dubious origin could end up on families’ tables, as Ukraine and other non-EU states would gain access to the market at the expense of EU producers and consumers.

They stressed that agricultural support is not a gift, farmers must produce for it under the strictest plant protection, animal welfare and environmental protection conditions in the world

The European Commission is not promoting healthy European food production when it applies banded deductions to area-based payments. According to calculations, almost a quarter of the support would be deducted from a holding size of 100-150 hectares. This would destroy the family economic model, and in Hungary the vast majority of producers operate within family economic frameworks, more than half of the farmland is cultivated by farms between 50 and 500 hectares. According to the proposal, subsidies would be completely withdrawn from farmers of retirement age, thus removing subsidies from every third Hungarian producer – they added. According to the statement, negotiations on free trade agreements are continuing in the meantime, and honey imports from Ukraine could increase sixfold compared to pre-war quotas, sugar fivefold, eggs threefold, and mushroom imports would be completely liberalized. They also called the agreement to be concluded with South American countries risky, since tariffs would be eliminated or reduced on four-fifths of the food coming from there. NAK and MAGOSZ, together with other interest groups, are therefore organizing another large-scale farmers’ protest in Brussels in the fall to protect farmers and consumers, they announced.

MTI