The European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been instrumental in creating the single market and should clearly demonstrate its benefits for Europeans even after 2020, a government official has said.
During a joint session of the farm committees of the Visegrád Four in Budapest on Thursday, György Czerván, state secretary at the ministry of agriculture, said that CAP’s primary goals are still relevant and should not be overridden by others such as those of the EU’s migration policy. He added that funding should continue to flow to the farmers.
Sándor Font, head of the Hungarian committee, said the session is focusing on ongoing CAP reforms, double standards in food production and unfair trade practices.
MTI reports that a joint statement was signed at the end of the meeting to be sent to EU leaders and the member states’ heads of parliament. The statement calls for the present subsidiary system to be left unchanged, Font said.
The statement added that the system guarantees safe and affordable food supply for all European citizens, and should not be curbed to channel funds into solving the migration crisis, as some states have proposed.