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AGRICULTURE MINISTER: GOVT WORKING TO PROTECT EU FUNDING FOR HUNGARIAN FARMERS

 

The Hungarian government is doing all it can to preserve current levels of EU funding for Hungarian farmers, Minister of Agriculture István Nagy said, after a meeting of central and eastern European counterparts. The ministers of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania signed a joint declaration at the meeting in Warsaw, calling for the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to be maintained at the current level in the bloc’s budget for the 2021-2027 financial cycle, the ministry said in a statement.
Nagy said the current proposal for CAP funding “would have to be raised even without the increased demands environmental and climate protection measures placed on farmers”. “We can’t ask more from farmers with stagnant funding, and even less so if funding is cut,” he said. The ministers agreed that the sector should contribute towards achieving the EU’s climate goals, “but a balance must be found between commitments made by the farming sector and other sectors,” the ministry said.
Regarding the EU’s Green Deal, Nagy said its goals should be achieved “not by impoverishing Hungarian farmers but by making large polluting corporations pay the price of climate change.” Climate change should not lead to “less competitive EU farming or more red tape for farmers. Even more important, it should not lead to higher food prices,” Nagy said.