Portuguese farmers’ federation in Brussels to ask for €60 million owed

The Confederation of Portuguese Farmers will be in Brussels from Wednesday to Friday to ask EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski to approve the €60 million in state aid owed to the sector.

The confederation is travelling to Brussels with a delegation of around 20 people, led by its president and made up of board members and technical staff.

“The first point to highlight is the meeting with the Agriculture Commissioner, which, in the situation we’re in, is a very important meeting because the European Commission has to authorise the request for state aid that the government has made to pay farmers what it should have paid them previously,” Álvaro Mendonça e Moura, president of the confederation also known as CAP, told Lusa.

At stake is a sum of €60 million, part of the government’s announced package of support for the agricultural sector.

The meeting with Wojciechowski is scheduled for Wednesday at the European Commission’s headquarters.

“It is very important that the European Commission makes a decision quickly […]. I hope [the payment] will be made in the next few weeks. Farmers can’t wait forever,” Mendonça e Moura stressed.

For the CAP president, the second major issue to be addressed is the revision of the Common Agricultural Policy Strategic Plan, which the Confederation wants the government to present “without delay” in Brussels.

On the same day, CAP will meet at the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations (COPA) to discuss the organisation’s work and activities.

Thursday’s agenda includes a public meeting with the agricultural federations of Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands to “analyse the general situation of farmers in Europe”, a meeting with MEPs and the Portuguese Permanent Representation to the European Union (REPER).

At this last meeting, CAP will inform REPER of the conclusions of the meeting with the Agriculture Commissioner.

The trip will end on Friday with a visit to an agricultural production site in Flanders.

During the working day, the confederation also intends to draw attention to issues such as the lack of measures to support production and a structured vision for agriculture, forestry and the rural world in Portugal.

On Friday, CAP accused Agriculture Minister Maria do Céu Antunes of making a “political manoeuvre” by approving €320 million for the sector, stressing that only €60 million would be paid this year.

On Thursday, the Cabinet approved a resolution to support the agricultural sector to the tune of €320 million, with the aim of mitigating the effects of drought and inflation on production costs.

Contacted by Lusa at the time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food explained that this amount is part of the support package for the sector, with more than €400 million in funding, launched by the government.

The rest of the money relates to support that depends on the “green light” from Brussels, it said.

The government had announced a support package of more than €400 million to mitigate the effects of the drought and to strengthen PEPAC, but this did not stop the sector from protesting.

The farmers, who are demanding more flexibility in the CAP, fair working and competitive conditions, the right to adequate food and an increase in the value of their activity, decided to go ahead with their planned protests, arguing that the aid was “a handful of nothing” as no deadlines or payment methods had been defined.

Since then, Agriculture Minister Maria do Céu Antunes has been meeting with the Citizens’ Movement of Farmers and the associations and federations representing the sector.

(Pedro Emídio, Lusa.pt)