A meeting of the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council (Agrifish) is scheduled for Monday, February 26, 2024. Agriculture and fisheries ministers from the 27 EU Member States will exchange views on how to ensure a quick and effective response to the current crisis in the agricultural sector.
Debate about the crisis with the crisis behind us
The next meeting of the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council (Agrifish) is scheduled for Monday, February 26, 2024, in Brussels, which brings together ministers from all EU countries responsible for agriculture and fisheries.
The Agrifish Council meets on average every month, but this meeting takes place in an extremely tense atmosphere. It was decided that the key issue discussed by the gathered ministers would be the crisis in the agricultural sector. While the Council is debating ideas for solutions, farmers are protesting on the streets of Brussels.
After the first scheduled votes, the Council moved on to private deliberations on the need for a quick and structural response to the current crisis facing the agricultural sector. Delegations from Romania, Italy, Slovakia and Poland will speak on matters related to, among others: with the GAEC 7 and GAEC 8 standards, the Common Agricultural Policy, the competitiveness and resilience of the agricultural sector. A press conference is scheduled around 1:30 p.m. with Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski and Agrifish Council meeting co-chair David Clarinval. A meeting of representatives of the European Commission and the Council with young farmers is also planned.
There is a need for changes beneficial to farmers
On Thursday, February 22, 2024, the European Commission asked the Belgian Presidency with proposals for actions aimed at reducing administrative burdens in agriculture. The simplifications would concern GAEC standards, the methodology of inspections carried out on farms and the impact of force majeure and extraordinary circumstances on the ability of farmers to meet CAP standards. In its document, the Commission also mentions additional medium-term measures and the launch of an online survey addressed to farmers, which is expected to be an important tool in consultations.
Before the start of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting on February 26, politicians gathered in Brussels emphasized the need to listen to protesting farmers and take action to strengthen European agriculture.
– The Presidency sent a request to the 27 Member States to collect all suggestions for improvements and simplification. We received 500 proposals, said David Clarinval, co-chairman of the meeting.
Clarinval noted that the Agrifish Council considered both the proposals put forward by the European Commission and submitted its suggestions to the Commission.
– Today we will discuss how to respond to our farmers who are going through a crisis situation. European farmers’ expectations are justified: they want fair remuneration and do not want to be overwhelmed by bureaucracy. We need to find short and medium-term solutions, said Sari Essayach, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland.
Zsolt Feldman, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Hungary, emphasized that European farmers need farmer-friendly solutions that will enable them to work with less administrative burden.
– We need to change a lot in the Common Agricultural Policy. The goals of the Green Deal are practically impossible to achieve while importing products from third countries that do not meet our EU requirements, said Armands Krauze, Minister of Agriculture of Latvia.
Armands Krauze added that in 2021, when the goals and rules of the CAP were established, we were not dealing with a war just outside the EU, and its outbreak changed everything, also in European agriculture.
– We must listen carefully to the voices of farmers from all over Europe, appreciate their contribution to food production and reflect this in the Common Agricultural Policy. I would like to tell protesting farmers that we are here today to take their voices into account, said Charlie McConalogue, Ireland’s Minister of Agriculture, Food and Maritime.
– Farmers took to the streets all over Europe. This is a very clear sign that we need to listen to them. I would like to draw attention to the problem of constant price pressure in the food chain, the introduction of requirements that lead to heavy and restrictive controls and the loss of competitiveness of European products compared to imported ones. In the long term, an important issue is the uncertainty of agricultural activity, pointed out Jo Brouns, Minister of Economy, Innovation, Labor, Social Economy and Agriculture of Flanders.
During the press conference, the most important conclusions from the meeting were presented, more about which in the text below:
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