“The countries of the Visegrád Group (V4) and the Baltic States all agree that the proposed reduction in EU funding available to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the post-2020 period is unacceptable”, Minister of Agriculture István Nagy said in Bábolna at the final meeting of agriculture ministers during the Hungarian Presidency of the V4.
The Minister stressed that Hungary and its regional allies regard the planned reduction in CAP funding proposed by the European Commission as unacceptable, particularly in view of the fact that the published regulatory changes would place significantly greater burdens on farmers. According to the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture’s calculations, based on the proposal put forward by the European Commission Hungarian CAP funding (at 2018 comparative prices) would be reduced by 16.4% in the case of direct payments and rural development funding would fall by 26.6% in the seven-year post-2020 programming period.
“We cannot ask farmers to do more while the Commission wants to drastically reduce funding”, he added. “Funding derived from the Common Agricultural Policy must continue to be received by farmers”, the Minister stressed.
“Maintaining the current level of production-based funding, which is particularly helpful to dairy and beef farmers, sheep farmers, the fruit and vegetable sector and farmers with protein crops, promises to be a difficult task. Together with our allies we will be doing everything possible in the interests of maintaining the current level of funding”, the Hungarian Agriculture Minister said.
This is the first time that the agriculture ministers of the Visegrád Group countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) and their counterparts from Bulgaria, Croatia Romania and Slovenia have been joined by representatives of the Baltic States to discuss current agricultural policy issues.
(Ministry of Agriculture)
