In mid-February, Janusz Wojciechowski, EU Commissioner for Agriculture, suggested to the head of the European Commission that she agree to an inflation adjustment of direct payment rates in member states. Direct payments would increase by 10% this year. Farmer.pl asked Commissioner Wojciechowski about whether this proposal is being analyzed at all in the Commission and whether farmers can expect favorable decisions in this area. At the same time, we also found out whether farmers will be able to count on further fertilizer subsidies this year.
What could be the European Commission’s response to the agricultural protests? In order to eliminate the root causes of the protest problem and provide immediate and significant assistance to the farming community, Janusz Wojciechowski, the EU Commissioner for Agriculture, proposed in mid-February this year. President Ursula von der Leyen has three options. One of them would be to increase the rates of direct payments by 10%.
– Farmers raise the issue of inflation, which has drastically reduced the real value of direct payments. At EU level, it is not possible to adjust the CAP budget to inflation. I therefore propose that the Commission allow Member States to increase the percentage of direct payments financed from the state budget to 10%. This agreement could be implemented in the framework of the Commission Communication on the Temporary State Aid Framework adopted in response to the exceptional circumstances caused by Russian aggression in Ukraine. This would allow for national indexation of direct payments – proposed Janusz Wojciechowski to the President of the European Commission.
Where do we stand?
Farmer.pl asked at a conference organized on March 15 this year whether this proposal is being analyzed at all in the Commission and whether farmers can expect favorable decisions in this area. in Warsaw, Commissioner Wojciechowski.
– If Member States presented such proposals as part of the currently existing system of aid related to Russian aggression against Ukraine and by demonstrating that the inflation of direct payments is the result of the war, and to a large extent the inflation is the result of the war in Ukraine, I see the justification for this form of public aid, although I say this with caution because I am not directly responsible for decisions regarding state aid, said Commissioner Wojciechowski.
So the baton is on the side of the current government. Will Donald Tusk, who has recently been trying to “please” farmers, apply to the European Commission for the possibility of increasing the rates of direct subsidies under the conditions indicated by Janusz Wojciechowski?
Fertilizer subsidies in 2024?
During the question asked by farmer.pl, the Commissioner raised another important issue.
– At the end of June, the crisis framework for public aid for farmers in connection with the war in Ukraine ends. (…) These are hundreds of billions of euros of aid provided within this pool to the entire EU economy. I made efforts to include agriculture in this aid system, even though there were doubts about it. Thanks to this, EU member states have provided public aid to the agricultural industry for a total amount of EUR 10 billion so far, of which Poland benefited the most – it received EUR 4 billion. Next are Italy and France. It is very important to extend this temporary framework, just as trade liberalization with Ukraine is currently being extended. As long as this liberalization lasts, there should be the possibility of public aid for farmers, because farmers are the group harmed by this liberalization – said Janusz Wojciechowski.
And he added:
– Poland benefits from trade with Ukraine because it has over EUR 7 billion in overall surplus, but farmers had a EUR 655 million deficit in trade with Ukraine in 2023. And this is still less than in 2022, where it was almost EUR 2 billion.
He also emphasized that there are every grounds to extend this public aid (temporary framework), but this requires political decisions at the highest level.
– I think this is an issue that Poland should raise at the next European Council. If this framework is not extended, there will only be de minimis aid, which is too small to meet the scale of needs.
Agriculture will need help. In the EU, in Poland, no one can guarantee that grain prices will rise dramatically. There are no such signals. So the difficult situation of farmers may continue and farmers will need help. It must be aid from national budgets, because the EU budget is very modest when it comes to the crisis reserve, which is fully used. This is a very important issue, because from the second half of the year farmers will be asking for more aid, for subsidies for fertilizers and cereals, and then they will be told that such aid cannot be granted because the aid framework has ended. So the point is that they don’t end – said Commissioner Wojciechowski.
– .
