The European Union’s Agriculture Ministers held talks in Riga between 31 May and 2 June at a meeting organised by the Latvian Presidency of the EU. The Hungarian delegation was led by Minister of Agriculture Sándor Fazekas.
The main focus of the talks was the future of organic farming. Increased demand for organic products has led to the dynamic development of the sector. The area of European land involved in organic farming has more than doubled since 2002, representing some 6% of agricultural land in the region, which is six times the world average.
The Ministers agreed that the production of organic food products must continue to be performed according to strict regulations and that these requirements must also be enforced with relation to imports to enable the further development of production by EU member states.
Minister Fazekas pointed out with relation to organic products that it is extremely important to maintain consumer confidence, in the interests of which the efficiency of monitoring must also be suitably maintained, in addition to which product purity is also a fundamental requirement. The EU directive designed to modernise the regulation of the rapidly developing organic farming sector will be further discussed at the June Council meeting in Luxembourg.
The EU Agriculture Ministers also took the opportunity to visit a successfully operating Latvian organic farm during a trip organised by the Latvian Presidency.
In addition to the meeting, Mr. Fazekas also held bilateral talks with EU Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan on the state of the milk market. The Minister drew Commissioner Hogan’s attention to the fact that the Commission should give suitable thought to finding solutions to local and regional problems in view of the fact that there are huge differences in buying-in prices throughout Europe and the low prices in Hungary and the Eastern and Central European Region are causing significant difficulties to farmers. According to Commissioner Hogan, the fact that according to market analyses the situation throughout the whole European Union is expected to become stable during the second half of the year is encouraging.
For the moment, the Commission plans to give member states the opportunity to handle the situation through enabling the more flexible redistribution of rural development funding. Commissioner Hogan promised that the Commission would closely monitor market processes and take further action if necessary. Mr. Fazekas also held talks with the Agriculture Ministers of Romania and Bulgaria, who are suffering similar milk market difficulties; the three Ministers agreed to take joint action if the situation fails to improve.
(Ministry of Agriculture)
