Hungary’s agriculture minister has revealed that the Visegrád Group (V4) and the countries of the Baltic States agree that the proposed reduction in EU funding available to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the post-2020 period is unacceptable.
István Nagy, minister of Agriculture, stressed that Hungary and its regional allies regard the planned reduction in CAP funding proposed by the European Commission as unsuitable, particularly in view of the fact that the published regulatory changes would place significantly greater burdens on farmers.
According to official figures, the Hungarian CAP funding would be reduced by 16.4 percent in the case of direct payments and rural development funding would fall by 26.6 percent in the seven-year post-2020 period.
“We cannot ask farmers to do more while the Commission wants to drastically reduce funding. Funding derived from the Common Agricultural Policy must continue to be received by farmers,” the minster stressed.
“Maintaining the current level of production-based funding, which is particularly helpful to dairy and beef farmers, sheep farmers, the fruit and vegetable sector and farmers with protein crops, promises to be a difficult task. Together with our allies we will be doing everything possible in the interests of maintaining the current level of funding,” he added.
The minister made the remarks after meeting agriculture ministers of the Visegrád Group countries and their counterparts from Bulgaria, Croatia Romania and Slovenia, and joined by representatives of the Baltic States to discuss current agricultural policy issues in Bábolna.