It is exactly four years since the European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski first spoke to the Irish Farmers Journal.

As he approaches the final weeks of his term, he again shared his thoughts with us on how his term developed and what the future direction should be for farming and food production in the European Union.

He was unknown to Irish farmers when he was appointed to fill the big shoes left by Phil Hogan as his predecessor as agriculture commissioner.

When he arrived, finalising the current CAP and its budget was the initial priority and the future CAP budget is foremost in his thinking in the latter stages of his term.

In between, much time was dedicated to two major events, a global pandemic in the initial months of the term, followed by Russia invading Ukraine in February 2022.

“I started my mandate in a normal situation but a few weeks later the COVID-19 pandemic started,” the commissioner explained.

By the start of 2022, the worst effects of COVID-19 had passed but Russia invading Ukraine had far-reaching implications for EU countries and the EU institutions. The commissioner summarised his term as “five years of crisis management”.

Food security

While the worst effects of the pandemic were felt by health services, there was also great concern about maintaining food supplies during the lockdown.

The commissioner said that he was “absolutely thankful for farmers because this was a difficult time”. Of course, factory workers and delivery drivers also played a critical role in maintaining the food supply chain, which continued to function remarkably well despite the enormous difficulties and strains caused by the pandemic.

The fallout from Russia invading Ukraine was an even bigger challenge for the EU given the extent of dependence on Russia for energy and consequences of Ukraine’s access to global markets for its grain exports.

After initial problems, Ukraine has found a way to get its grain out to world markets through a combination of maritime access and overland, with the EU suspending tariffs on Ukrainian produce.

Over the past year, this has caused problems, particularly with neighbouring EU countries including Poland where there have been widespread farmer and haulier protests at cheap Ukrainian grain undercutting the market.

Trade

On Ukraine and its future relationship with the EU, the commissioner was passionate. He spoke of being from Poland, which he said was under Russian occupation or domination for 250 of the last 300 years.

“We know what Russian imperial policy means and the consequences, and this is the reason that we need to absolutely support Ukraine”.

He did accept that the longer-term ambition to have Ukraine as part of the EU would bring challenges.

Using the projected economic impact of the still-to-be-approved Mercosur trade deal as a reference point, the commissioner pointed out that “during seven months of 2022, the increase of the value of Ukrainian exports to the EU market was €6bn, [while] the potential scale of the Mercosur agreement for European agriculture is a €2bn increase”.

Careful management

While being supportive of the principle of Ukraine becoming part of the EU, the commissioner accepted that it would require careful management.

He referred to using the traditional period to manage trade flows and he also referred to the structure of Ukrainian farming.

He described multinational agricultural corporations as being the top nine land managers in Ukraine and, after that, it was a similar structure with Ukrainian ownership.

He suggested that this be managed by paying a maximum €100,000 for a single farm as “it will not be good if we will use [the] EU budget to support such big, big companies”.

The European Commissioner for Agriculture has a farming background from growing up on a 42ha farm in Poland.

He studied law and had a successful legal career, becoming a judge prior to entering politics.

He served as deputy of the Polish parliament prior to being elected as a member of the European Parliament in 2004.

He served as vice-chair of the agriculture committee and was chair of the Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals. He was appointed to the EU Court of Auditors in 2016, serving until he was appointed European Commissioner for Agriculture in 2019.

CAP budget needs more money

The commissioner told the Irish Farmers Journal that money continues to be the major issue for farmers in the EU and it is a problem and a solution for the European Commission as well.

In his first interview with the Irish Farmers Journal four years ago, he referred to securing an increase in the final budget for the current CAP of €22bn, bringing the total budget to €387bn. When it was pointed out to him that this was a very modest increase, he accepted that more money was needed for the CAP budget and that his successor will have to “fight for a stronger budget”.

When he was asked where he thinks the budget should be, he replied that “0.4% of GDP is not enough for the challenges for the food security and for the many other obligations, for farmers, for climate, for environment, etc”. He described “my dream is to increase [the budget by] 50% comparing to [the] current budget” but he admitted that “as a realist I can say that to achieve the minimum 0.5%” of GDP would be an acceptable outcome.

Strictly speaking, both nature restoration and the nitrates directive fall under the remit of the Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevicius.

However, when the topic was raised in our interview, the commissioner was clear in his thinking about the importance of the nitrates derogation to Irish agriculture and how the Nature Restoration Law should be funded.

The Nature Restoration Law was signed off by EU leaders at last month’s Council of Ministers meeting and will come into effect as soon as published, without the need for national implementation legislation. This will take land out of production and the commissioner was clear that this should not be funded from a future CAP.

When asked if nature restoration should have its own budget, he gave a definitive answer, “absolutely yes, absolutely”.

Nitrates

The commissioner was somewhat circumspect when it came to continuation of the nitrates directive for Irish farmers.

“We should take into account the specific situation of our farmers everywhere in Europe, and also, maybe especially in Ireland, [and] because [of] the dramatic decrease of the farmers’ incomes in last year, this is not a good time to create new obligations for farmers.”

He was particularly taken by the idea that if 170kg N/ha became mandatory, many Irish dairy farmers would move from an extensive grazing system to a more intensive indoor system.

He referred to seeing the Irish system when he visited Ireland and noted its animal welfare benefits.

He said: “We should avoid the potential consequences … [of] intensive farming in buildings [being] treated as better than extensive” and that “we should support farmers who have their animals in the open space grazing.”

The commissioner has had a long interest in animal welfare and his sentiment clearly is that having cattle grazing grass is preferable to having cattle indoors all year.

While the commissioner is correct in saying that the CAP budget increased in strict monetary terms, the reality is that it has not been index-linked and has been devalued by inflation. It is also a reality that the CAP’s share of the overall budget is lower.

The problem is that the EU has wider ambitions and responsibilities such as defence which historically didn’t really feature but is now an increasing priority following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

While Commissioner Wojciechowski has consistently advocated for an increased CAP budget to fund farmers in operating to the standards required by the EU, the reality is that his successor has a major challenge.

Demands from all other areas of EU expenditure are also only going to increase and the next commissioner has to be persuaded that a successful productive agriculture sector in the EU is essential to maintain food security.

The panic and inflation caused by cutting off Russian gas supplies revealed how dependent the EU is on external providers of energy. A properly funded CAP is key to ensuring it doesn’t happen with food.