Today, during the 10th Beef Sector Forum, the EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, talked about large measures aimed at animal welfare, while emphasizing the need for further support, especially for farms combining plant and animal production.
– Animal welfare – this is a light green order. I am very glad that so much money has been allocated to well-being, said Janusz Wojciechowski at the beginning of his speech.
Wojciechowski emphasized that through cooperation we managed to make Poland a leader in well-being today. In the previous financial perspective, PLN 1.5 billion was allocated to activities related to well-being. Today, among others through eco-schemes we have 6 billion on the EU scale. Support for breeding should be a permanent element of the common agricultural policy, also in the future.
– Additional support is needed for mixed farms with plant and animal production that are more sustainable. In previous years, we lost a lot of these farms, Wojciechowski pointed out.
In the EU, 3 million farms disappeared during the decade 2010-2020. Their number dropped from 12 million to 9 million. Mixed farms have seen the greatest decline.
– Farms that combine animal and plant production and specialize in either plant or animal production are disappearing. We would like to maintain and recover as much as possible those farms that produce both, said Commissioner Wojciechowski.
Agricultural protests in Europe
Protests have many causes and many bases. It started mainly with domestic issues, including: issues related to fuel subsidies or tax issues. As part of the development of these protests, issues emerged that also fall under European competence, namely Ukraine and the fallow element of the Green Deal.
– As for Ukraine, the scale of imports has overwhelmed the European market. Ukrainian imports operated under normal rules, i.e. those before the war, when Ukraine directed most of its production to the markets of Africa and Asia (China, India, Indonesia, Egypt and Turkey). The war meant that Ukraine was mostly pushed out of these markets, Wojciechowski said.
According to the commissioner, by opening up to Ukrainian goods, on the one hand, we help Ukraine, but on the other hand, we indirectly help Russia consolidate its war gains. Russia has already achieved one goal, which is to push Ukraine out of its markets, and the second goal is to make a mess in Europe. Such an uncritical opening of the European market to goods from Ukraine is politically not the best direction. Help for Ukraine should consist in supporting its return to lost markets.
In terms of fallow this year there will be a derogation, based on the French proposal, i.e. replacing fallow land with legumes. This means sowing legumes at 4%. land is to solve the fallow issue.
– I proposed something like suspending fines for farmers, not even suspending the fallowing, just the fines themselves. For breeders, I think it is important, breeding farms can use it. This is definitely a step in the right direction, I am glad that at least this much has been achieved in this matter – commented Wojciechowski.
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