European farm leaders have written to the president of the European Commission to highlight how farmers are caught between “uncertain and volatile international trade environment and incoherent EU policies”.
Joachim Rukwied, president of Copa, and Thomas Magnusson, president of Cogeca, wrote to Ursula von der Leyen about what they called “agri-bashing”.
Protests
Referring to recent farmer protests in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland, the pair said farmers feel “unfairly” blamed.
“In addition to this agri-bashing, EU farmers are paying the high price for other international policy developments, such as the Russian embargo, Brexit and the WTO panel disputes,” they wrote.
They said that while they fully support the ongoing CAP reform process, “we fear that once again the outcome would be increased red tape and poorer economic results for the farmers”.
We fear that once again the outcome would be increased red tape
“This would have serious consequences for our future, bearing in mind the need to combat environmental challenges like climate change with dramatically reduced numbers of young farmers entering the sector,” they pointed out.
Tractor protests in Germany on October 22
They said Copa Cogeca believe agriculture and forestry can provide long-term solutions for the environmental challenge, but “the difficulty is to manage this in an increasingly open, global economy where the expectations of our European citizens and the international market reality do not always coincide”.
They appealed for “strong, adequately financed EU policies and public support to make this happen”.
Read more
Watch: thousands of tractors stop traffic in Dutch climate protest
Dutch farmers get a kick in the Groningen
European farm leaders have written to the president of the European Commission to highlight how farmers are caught between “uncertain and volatile international trade environment and incoherent EU policies”.
Joachim Rukwied, president of Copa, and Thomas Magnusson, president of Cogeca, wrote to Ursula von der Leyen about what they called “agri-bashing”.
Protests
Referring to recent farmer protests in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland, the pair said farmers feel “unfairly” blamed.
“In addition to this agri-bashing, EU farmers are paying the high price for other international policy developments, such as the Russian embargo, Brexit and the WTO panel disputes,” they wrote.
They said that while they fully support the ongoing CAP reform process, “we fear that once again the outcome would be increased red tape and poorer economic results for the farmers”.
We fear that once again the outcome would be increased red tape
“This would have serious consequences for our future, bearing in mind the need to combat environmental challenges like climate change with dramatically reduced numbers of young farmers entering the sector,” they pointed out.
Tractor protests in Germany on October 22
They said Copa Cogeca believe agriculture and forestry can provide long-term solutions for the environmental challenge, but “the difficulty is to manage this in an increasingly open, global economy where the expectations of our European citizens and the international market reality do not always coincide”.
They appealed for “strong, adequately financed EU policies and public support to make this happen”.
Read more
Watch: thousands of tractors stop traffic in Dutch climate protest
Dutch farmers get a kick in the Groningen
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: