József Viski: It is in Hungary’s interest to preserve the independent, two-pillar common agricultural policy

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Speaking to journalists ahead of the meeting of the Council of Agriculture Ministers, József Viski drew attention to the fact that the European Commission is proposing to abolish the independent, two-pillar structure that has been working well for decades, and to make the resources available to the member states within the framework of a single common financial fund. “We cannot accept this from the Hungarian side. Hungary has been opposed to merging the various funds from the beginning,” he said. He recalled that last year both European farmer organizations and the European Parliament expressed concerns about this. Last year, during the Hungarian EU presidency, agricultural ministers unanimously took a position on the need for an independent two-pillar common agricultural policy with independent implementation rules. Despite this, in recent weeks the European Commission’s idea has been officially made public, according to which, when developing its proposal, it ignored the opinions of those most affected by the implementation of the CAP, the Member States and the final beneficiary farmers – József Viski drew attention. He explained that the EU Commission continues to insist on providing a single financial framework for the Member States, and all this in such a way that the financial framework is reduced in the case of the Member States and thus in the case of Hungary as well. The State Secretary said that the amount proposed for Hungary would be more than 20 percent lower than the framework that can be used for the same measures in the current period. “If we adjust this for inflation, the situation is even more disappointing,” he drew attention.

On the contrary, it wants to ensure that each policy will compete with each other within the Member States, and that the government of the given Member State will say how much money or how much less money it will give to each policy and each sector. This is not favorable for any sector – he noted. We do not think that this responsibility should be delegated to the Member States, while the European Union is making central decisions that have an impact on the common agricultural policy and the European agriculture and food industry. Both the Mercosur agreement and the free trade agreements with Ukraine will fundamentally affect the situation of European, including Hungarian, farmers – stated József Viski. He added that it is definitely justified for the Member States to be able to provide these subsidies in their own implementation system. The State Secretary called it important for income security, food security and production security that farmers receive their area-based subsidies on time, at the usual pace, and in a predictable manner, as in recent decades. “It is important that the autonomous, independent, two-pillar common agricultural policy remains in the next EU cycle, because only in this way can we guarantee that Hungarian farmers have access to the subsidies they are entitled to and that they can farm competitively and predictably,” the State Secretary responsible for agricultural and rural development subsidies added in his statement.

MTI