Farmers and the Common Agricultural Policy
On a formal visit to Romania, the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, participated in the National Conference of the Romanian Farmers' Club
Newsroom, 07.11.2024, 13:50
The Romanian Minister of Agriculture Florin Barbu and the European Commissioner for Agriculture, the Polish Janusz Wojciechowski, who is on formal visit to Romania, participated in the National Conference of the Romanian Farmers’ Club, which took place in Bucharest.
Romania will benefit, in the next four years, from 1.5-billion-euro worth of processing, which will make it the leader in South-Eastern Europe in terms of processed materials, said Florin Barbu. Also, the Romanian official explained that, in the context of the war in Ukraine and its effects on European agriculture, he requested again, at the last Agriculture and Fisheries Council, the extension of the application of the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework in the sector, as well as an increase of the individual aid ceiling from 280,000 euros to 560,000 euros per enterprise. He recalled that an important ordinance was approved for those operating in the agricultural sector in Romania, who can get loans at 1.95% interest rate, with the Government and the Ministry of Agriculture paying for ROBOR and other commissions. Florin Barbu stressed that he will remain in a permanent dialogue with all the associative forms and drew attention that he needs a clear mandate from them regarding the position towards the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
This needs a separate budget, and farmers must be sure that they will receive the money without discussions about the rule of law or other conditions not related to the CAP, stated, in turn, the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski. This is the agreement between the EU and the farmers: you fulfill your obligations, you get the money. If the concept of including all money in one budget for all policies is reached, this is dangerous for farmers, the European official stated. We currently spend only 0.4% of the EU’s GDP on farmers and it is a huge challenge and an absolutely crucial issue to ensure the increase in the CAP budget, he added.
At the same time, the commissioner warned that a single budget means less money for farmers, due to inflation, and an external convergence will be politically impossible. The statements were made in the context of information appearing in the public space, according to which the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, wants to completely reorganize the EU budget policy, giving member states more autonomy in managing funds. However, final control over the allocation and use of resources would remain with the European Commission.
One of the main first proposed is the concentration of all EU funds in a single national budget for each of the 27 member states. The new system is to be implemented as of 2028. In this context, the budget allocated to agriculture could be integrated into a larger one, alongside structural and cohesion policies. Analysts point out that this change could diminish the specificity and importance of funds for agriculture, one of the EU’s main budgetary priorities, at least until now. (MI)
