We agreed that it would be good to organize a kind of “round table” in the Sejm as soon as possible, so that experts, farmers, politicians and representatives of the agricultural market could talk continuously – said the Speaker of the Sejm, Szymon Hołownia, after a meeting with representatives of protesting farmers.
- Last weekend, a farmers’ protest took place in Warsaw.
- During this protest, a delegation of farmers met the authorities in the Sejm, among others. with Szymon Hołownia.
- At Tuesday’s briefing in the Sejm, Hołownia emphasized that the farmers’ delegation was large and included several representatives of agricultural organizations representing a wide spectrum of agricultural problems.
- According to the Speaker of the Sejm, farmers raised three basic demands at the meeting. These were the demands that farmers have been talking about for a long time: opposition to the harmful provisions of the Green Deal, opposition to the inflow of non-EU goods to the Community market and maintaining the continuity of animal production.
As he reported, the first one is to “suspend the harmful solutions of the Green Deal.”
Not the entire Green Deal solutions, but the harmful ones (…) which – according to farmers – lead to their farms being on the verge of collapse, he added.
– The second demand is to solve the problem of excessive presence on European markets, including the Polish market, of agricultural goods from outside the EU – said the Speaker of the Sejm. He emphasized that farmers care not only about Ukrainian products, but also, for example, Russian grain. According to Hołownia, this problem is real and difficult to solve.
The third demand, as reported by the Marshal, concerns ensuring the continuity of animal production in agriculture.
During the conversation, we probably agreed on one thing, and this is probably the basic achievement of this hour – that it would be good as soon as possible to organize in some place, such as the Sejm, which provides such an opportunity, a kind of “round table” in which experts, farmers, politicians will discuss talk, but maybe processors and market representatives in general will talk to each other continuously – he said.
As he noted, the point is that “after a few months, maybe a dozen or so months of working together, it turns out that there is no need to organize large protests once a year, but that everyone has heard each other before and really knows what the other side is trying to do to face reality.”
Hołownia also emphasized that this “is not supposed to be a place where we can beat ourselves up”, but a forum for continuous conversation. He emphasized that this is about a conversation about how to “sort out” this difficult issue, which is currently the production of food that is safe for consumers at an appropriate level and at the same time profitable for farmers. According to Hołownia, these talks should discuss what can be done in this matter at the EU and national levels.
Among other issues discussed at the meeting, Hołownia mentioned at the briefing, among others: energy prices in connection with greenhouse gardening and matters related to hunting.
