Croatian farmers likely to join EU-wide farmer protest

Croatian farmers – getting increasingly frustrated with the ‘demands’ of the Green Deal and trade liberalisation negotiations with Mercosur – could soon join their colleagues across the EU who have been protesting for weeks.

The final decision on organising farmers’ protests in Croatia should be made by the Board of Directors of the Croatian Chamber of Agriculture at the start of next week, as announced by the Croatian Chamber of Agriculture (HPK), the umbrella organisation of Croatian farmers, on Tuesday.

“HPK supports the protests of its European colleagues and agrees with most of the demands that are part of the problems Croatian farmers face. HPK is considering whether Croatian farmers will also join the protests. The decision on this will be made by our sector committees, and then we will discuss this at the meeting of the Board of Directors, which will make the final decision”, the press release of the HPK reads.

According to HPK President Mladen Jakopović, several sectoral committees of HPK held their sessions in recent days. At these sessions, the members expressed their desire to join the protests of their European colleagues.

“We believe that the demands that are discussed at the protests in the EU are something that we agree with, and they are about problems that the entire EU is facing,” Jakopović said.

“According to the new CAP, among other things, we should photograph everything we do. We would, for example, be expected to take pictures of every trip to the field and everything we did there and to send hundreds and thousands of pictures as a condition for receiving support, and we don’t even know if we will get it. Until recently, they said that satellites would do such things. How will farmers do it now, it’s not their job, especially the elderly?” the former president of HPK and current member of the Board of Directors, Mato Brlošić, told Euractiv.

He also warns of the heavy demands placed on European agriculture by the EU’s green agenda. European farmers are increasingly prevented from using pesticides and herbicides while, at the same time, products are imported from other parts of the world where the same criteria are not applied.

Farmers are also furious about the EU’s trade liberalisation negotiations with Mercosur,

European and Croatian farmers are also worried about the massive import of Ukrainian grain and other agricultural products from that country into the Union.

HPK also warns of all these problems. The press release states that the agreement with Mercosur is “unacceptable for most farmers in the EU”. The HPK also calls for a review of the EU’s trade agreement with Ukraine.

Brlošić said that protests were not the same in all countries – in some countries, farmers blocked motorways, in others, shopping centres, while in others, city streets and ministries were blocked, or their actions included a combination of these measures. The analysis of the protests in other EU member states will be presented to the HPK board, after which a decision will be made and an assessment made of which model would be best for Croatia, according to the interlocutor.

The HPK is aware that this is an election year, but Brlošić claims that there is no political option behind the potential protests, but that, if the HPK decides to start them, they will be an expression of Croatian farmers’ indignation at the state of Croatian and European agriculture.

In addition to the European Parliament elections, Croatia has two more election cycles this year – parliamentary and presidential elections, although it is not yet known exactly when they will be held.

In addition, farmers in Croatia only recently ended their revolt against measures to fight African swine fever. The protests came to an end at the end of 2023.

If the farmers return to the streets, it will be the second protest by Croatian farmers in just a few months.

(Adriano Milovan, Euractiv.hr)