2024-09-24 12:00:00
EIn the midst of disasters, regulatory pressures and unfair international competition, there is concern over the Agri-Fisheries committee which met in Brussels on Monday. European agriculture ministers have sounded the alarm on the state of the agricultural sector. Transfer of power requires, neither Annie Genevard, the new French minister, nor Marc Fesneau can be in Brussels. The new Commissioner for Agriculture, Luxembourger Christophe Hansen (PPE), neither, because he will only take office until the end of the year.
Aged 42, the Luxembourger, a former MEP, must first receive hearings before the European Parliament. He will often have the opportunity to meet his cousin, Martine Hansen, who is the Minister of Agriculture in his country from November 2023. Christophe Hansen, as an MEP, sits in the International Trade Council and is a substitute in Council on the area.
A generous portfolio
The Luxembourger inherited a portfolio as generous as a plate of garnished sauerkraut. President von der Leyen set out a five-star menu for him in his mission letter: convene a “vision for Agriculture” in less than a hundred days (a record for the Brussels bureaucracy), increase the competitiveness of European farmers during that is green CAP, and take Robin Hood against the agri-food giant that is crushing business. The icing on the cake is that he will have to reform the old profession. The harrow would have to be very heavy to trace a long furrow…
READ IT AGAIN Six things to remember from the new European Commission “CAP must also become an instrument that guarantees income to farmers,” stressed Francesco Lollobrigida, the Italian minister, setting the tone for a meeting marked by several conflicts. The German counterpart, Cem Ozdemir, emphasized the urgency of European integration in the face of the floods that have hit many Member States. “We stand by our European partners and friends in the face of the suffering that people are experiencing there,” he announced, welcoming the announcement of 10 billion euros from the solidarity fund for disaster areas.
But perhaps it was the Dutch minister, Femke Wiersma, who summed up the general mood best: “In politics, I think a slightly different wind is blowing everywhere. The question is how hard. » An explanation that takes its full meaning in the light of the Strohschneider report, resulting from the Strategic Dialogue launched by Ursula von der Leyen, and which took a good part of the discussions.
Poland is not convinced by Strohschneider’s report
This report, a real roadmap for tomorrow’s European agriculture, received a mixed reception. If Cem Ozdemir praised his “moderate approach”, seeking to correct the needs of agriculture and environmental protection, others, like Pole Czesław Siekierski, insisted that the decisions were “all general” and did not meet expectations farmers.
The Hungarian Zsolt Feldman, who became the rotating chairman of the Council, himself knows that “some issues are problematic, especially about the future of breeding”. In this area, Strohschneider’s report identifies a trend towards reducing the use of animal products and supports a shift to plant proteins. It aims to mediate environmental sustainability, animal welfare and the economic viability of the sector. A stone in the garden of the future Commissioner of Agriculture, Luxembourger Christophe Hansen, who will have the difficult task of turning these recommendations into practical actions.
Franco-German proposal for increase in state aid
But beyond the strategic considerations, it is the pace of daily life that dominates the debates. The Franco-German proposal to increase the de minimis aid, a small amount of state aid given to businesses, to 50,000 euros has received great support from the 16 member states. These de minimis aids, the lives real problem for farmers, are subsidies that states can give without prior authorization from Brussels, if they do not exceed a ceiling – currently set at 20,000 euros per farm in three years. By proposing to increase this ceiling more than twice, Paris and Berlin have clearly put their finger on the crying need for liquidity in rural Europe. But when? “It’s a matter of weeks. I’m thinking more about a few weeks, not months,” said Polish Minister Siekierski, emphasizing the urgency of the situation for many farmers hit by natural disasters.
Ministers also sounded the alarm about unfair competition, especially from Ukraine. “There is no level playing field, and this is what concerns our producers,” emphasized Hungarian Feldman, summing up the widely shared sentiment. Bulgarian representatives pointed out a problem with egg imports from Ukraine. “We examine the different tools available to the European Union to protect its market and its producers,” said the Polish minister. The new automatic safeguard mechanism requires the European Commission to re-introduce tariff quotas on imports of poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, corn, groats and honey beyond the statistical average of the quantities imported in the second semester of 2021 , in 2022 and in 2023.
Faced with this bright picture, there is a glimmer of hope: the stated desire to simplify the CAP. “Simplicity should not mean delivering more paperwork,” insisted the Hungarian president, in what looked like a collective culpa in the eyes of the Brussels bureaucracy.
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