The Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic supports the protests of German farmers against the planned cuts in subsidies and tax breaks and calls for the complete abolishment of the agricultural policy, Agrarian Chamber President Jan Doležal wrote in an official statement on Tuesday.
“We are closely monitoring the situation in Germany and are in 100% solidarity with the farmers there. They are facing similar problems as our farmers and growers,” wrote Doležal.
Agrarian Chamber represents mostly larger Czech farms and is a member of the European organisation COPA-COGECA.
In recent days, farmers across Germany have been blocking major roads to protest the government’s measure. Some protests also occurred in Czechia, but not of such a scale.
According to Doležal, farmers from both countries face cuts in subsidy support, rising energy costs, failing incomes or cheap imports of foreign production.
“Our common goal is a dignified, fair and viable agriculture. We want nothing more, and until governments understand this and recognise the agrarian sector as strategic, the very existence of farmers, and thus the food security of both our countries, will be threatened,” Doležal added, criticising the environmental ambitions imposed on the sector without providing farmers with impact studies.
“It would be best to start from scratch not only in Germany but also in the whole of Europe and to abolish subsidies, as well as the agricultural policy that is no longer understandable to farmers,” he added.
According to the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic, the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is not on par with the economic situation of the agricultural sector, considering it was created before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The CAP has completed its first year of implementation in the EU states, and the experience in the Czech Republic has not yet been positive, which has also been acknowledged by the Czech Agriculture Minister Marek Výborný (KDU-ČSL, EPP). According to him, it has brought increasing bureaucracy and needs to be adjusted.
(Aneta Zachová | Euractiv.cz)
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Source: euractiv.com
