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Brussels arm-twisting farmers, says Hungarian minister
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Mandatory and specific targets set down in the Green Deal, while advancing a political agreement on CAP reform, could also result in a decline in agricultural production, leading to drastic food price hikes, Minister of Agriculture István Nagy said at a Luxembourg meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council.
Ordinary people and farmers should not have to pay the price of the EU’s green targets, the minister insisted, noting that the agricultural sector was expected to aid the green transition by implementing new green requirements as part of the new Common Agricultural Policy.
In a statement on Monday, Nagy said there was no doubt that agriculture must help towards achieving climate protection targets. But environmental and competitiveness aspects, he added, should be balanced.
Political agreement on CAP reform reached in June this year struck this balance, he said, adding that the overwhelming majority of agriculture ministers agreed that EU legislation was the sole basis for adopting CAP strategic plans.
A gross misrepresentation of what the Commission are discussing, not forcing. They are proposing that farmers are encouraged to adopt practices which protect biodiversity and to prevent soil from being degraded through measures such as more fallow periods in a cyclical manner, all of which, if implemented by various farmers would result in them being very handsomely rewarded through even larger subsidies and grants in addition to monies they currently receive through CAP: It all about better land management and conservation.