Spanish farmers are maintaining their planned protests across Spain.
In the absence of concrete action from the government and the EU, the Spanish village is maintaining its protest plan. Asaja, COAG and UPA announce a wave of protests throughout Spain. In some regions, farmers have already taken to the streets.
On Friday, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, met with Asaya, COAG and UPA, the organizers of the protests.
The problems indicated by farmers include excess bureaucracy and environmental requirements of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), as well as unfair competition in imports through failure to meet European requirements, drought, high production costs and a guarantee of fair prices.
Talks with the ministry did not bring any results
The minister announced and assured that work on assistance for the sector is ongoing, but at the same time he did not indicate any specific solutions.
If we are here today, it is probably because the European Commission and the EU have not been able to conduct a dialogue with the agricultural sector, he said at the end of the meeting.
Farmers are dissatisfied with the course of the talks and say that the planned strikes will take place.
It is true that Spain has a law on the agri-food chain that France does not, but it must be a law that works and not the one that currently exists. It will be of no use to us – José Álvarez, Asaj’s organizational secretary, criticizes the minister’s words in an interview with La Razon.
CAP to change also according to Spanish farmers
As for the CAP, this area requires more flexible environmental regimes and less bureaucratic procedures. The CAP, with all its absurd ecology that we cannot resist, prevents us from making further progress, said Asaja vice-president José Manuel Cebollada after the meeting. – It cannot be that someone mocks us in this way and we cannot live with dignity from our farms – he added.
In his talks with farmers, the Minister of Agriculture indicates that the actions taken by the European Commission in the field of the Green Deal are implemented without a second thought. Protest leaders do not agree to shifting full responsibility for the situation on the agricultural market to Brussels.
If the CAP does not turn 180 degrees, environmental goals will not be achieved and jobs will be destroyed, because the EU has legislated behind the back of the sector and this is the responsibility of all those who are part of it, including individual governments – argues Miguel Padilla, Secretary General of COAG .
Trade unionists point out that the actions of EU commissioners are unstable and dictated only by the desire for political gains.
Previously, the rules could not be negotiated, but now it turns out that they can, just as the European Parliament elections are approaching. He (Luis Planas) agreed to this CAP. It’s not something that’s out of his control. If the CAP and ecological systems are bad, let’s adapt them. Dialogue is good, but problems need to be addressed and concrete measures need to be adopted, says organizing secretary Asaja.
Given the lack of concrete solutions, Asaja, COAG and UPA announced that demonstrations and demonstrations planned for the coming weeks throughout Spanish territory will go ahead as planned.
The duration of the protests will depend on dialogue with the EU, the government and the autonomous communities to reach real solutions, Montse Cortiñas, UPA deputy secretary general, told La Razon.
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