Strasbourg, 16 September 2024
For the ECR Group, farmers are the key to food security and the backbone of rural development. They should be treated as such. On this basis, the ECR Group believes that the conclusions of the Strategic Dialogue on the future of EU agriculture misses the main point.
Czech ECR member Veronika Vrecionová, who also chairs the Agriculture Committee, said during the debate in Strasbourg:
“I was expecting solutions to reduce bureaucracy and prepare the EU for enlargement. Instead, the report is a call for more money with no constructive proposals, introducing top-down management to reduce animal production.
“It would have been better if the report promoted plant-based foods less and had not tried to change people’s eating habits. It would have been better if, rather than NGOs, farmers above all had been involved in the consultations.”
For the ECR Group, the report also lacks the necessary critical review of the previous mandate.
Italian MEP Carlo Fidanza, ECR Agriculture coordinator, said:
“The report highlights the need to protect farmers’ incomes through fairer remuneration and a fairer distribution of added value. However, it seems that the ultra-ecological autopilot is still on, as if farmers had not forcefully expressed their unease, as if European citizens had not voted last June to stop this ideological drift.
“We need to base decisions on serious impact assessments, strengthen crisis management tools, and ensure reciprocity with third countries. It is time to give concrete support to our farmers, the main guardians of our territories”, he concluded.
Source – ECR Group (via email)