Eastern European farmers to jointly protest against EU agricultural policy

Representatives of agricultural organisations from Central and Eastern European countries met in Poland on Tuesday to agree on the organisation of joint protests against EU agricultural policy, which is set to take place on 22 February.

Agrarian Chamber spokeswoman Barbora Pánková told Euractiv Czechia that the international protests were agreed upon by delegations from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, and Latvia. “Other European countries were invited to join in,” she added.

“The farmer organisations attending today’s meeting have listened to our call to unite to address the existential challenges we all face,” Jan Doležal, president of the Czech Agrarian Chamber, said in a press release.

Protestors plan to ‘drive’ to border crossings but no details were further communicated.

According to Doležal, coordination among European farmers is the only chance to “draw attention to the desperate situation in which European agriculture currently finds itself and to put pressure on European and Czech politicians to finally take action that will help farmers”.

Eastern European farmers have identified three main issues that need to be addressed.

First, the EU should eliminate the surplus of agricultural products from duty-free Ukrainian imports. Second, the EU should adapt environmental regulations and ensure fair compensation for farmers. Thirdly, they are calling for a simplification of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy to decrease the bureaucracy that farmers are facing.

The EU Commission has already made some concessions, for example, extending the partial exemption from the conditionality rule for fallow land. In addition, the Commission will withdraw the proposed regulation that would have reduced the risk of pesticide use by 50% by 2030.

However, farmers remain unsatisfied with the EU’s measures. If the European Commission does not present a plan that realistically addresses all the problems outlined, the announced border measures will be repeated, the Czech Agrarian Chamber said.

(Aneta Zachová | Euractiv.cz)

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