Debate: Empowering farmers and rural communities - a dialogue towards sustainable and fairly rewarded EU agriculture
Date: WEDNESDAY, 7 FEBRUARY 2024
Speaker: Maroš Šefčovič
Language: EN

You, honourable Members, clearly highlighted how complex this issue we are going to discuss today is, especially in these challenging times for Europe and farmers. But I think what is absolutely clear also after this morning exchange is that what we need is to work better together, that we need, together, to look for constructive solutions. And I think, as Madam García Pérez mentioned early on in our discussion, farmers need EU and EU needs farmers. And I would like to ensure all of you, and especially our farmers and foresters community, that we treat them with the utmost respect and appreciation for their work and that we will continue to do so also in the future. I think that now, clearly, it’s a time to work on how can we overcome the polarisation which got into our discussion, what we can do to build bridges, and I cannot find a better place like this House to start with this process, to build the bridges, to look for the common solutions, and to have the right focus on our discussions for the future. And how to do it in the best possible way is to propose and work on concrete solutions. And many ideas have been already mentioned here today, and also, as Madam Vautmans said yesterday, in our debate with the President of the European Commission. What I kind of record and recall is that all of you called for making sure that we have to address one crucial point, and this is how to guarantee decent income for our farmers, how to make sure that those who produce in a sustainable manner, who are treating their employees decently, who respect all environmental forms, will not be undercut by unfair practices or cheap alternative imports from abroad. And that’s something what we are clearly looking at and what we want to address. Mr Mureşan, Mr Weber and many others have been calling for making sure that we will not take the decisions on agriculture without talking to the farmers, and we are doing exactly that. Therefore, we launched our strategic dialogue on the future of agriculture well in advance of the next discussion on the next seven years’ budget and next debate on the future CAP. And I believe that, through that strategic dialogue and also with your participation, we will have plenty of ideas how to structure and frame those policies better. And I agree with Mr Álvarez that we have to work with the farmers because they have to feel the ownership of this process, and this is how the structured strategic dialogue is organised. Madam Müller was referring to the importance to make sure that the strategic dialogue shouldn’t just be a top-down approach. I totally agree with her, and therefore we made sure that the participation in this discussion is wide-ranging, that we have big farmers, small farmers, young farmers, organic farmers, that we have representatives of the whole value chain, researchers, innovators, but also academics. And I very much appreciate that some of you suggested that it would be good to also discuss these issues on the regional level, and I can assure you that through the special portal which we created for this, we are ready to accommodate also the ideas coming from you, coming from regional dialogue, so they would enrich the final report which we will present to all of you by the end of summer as a result of this strategic dialogue. I also agree with you, honourable Members, that the best-quality food in the world is produced here in Europe and that our farmers are guaranteeing not only food security for all Europeans, but they also created the sector about which we are proud because it’s important part of the European economy, and we want to improve it further – because the European farmers must consolidate this important position for now and for the future. Madam Carvalhais was referring to the young farmers. I had several discussions with them and indeed, we have to find the solution to the two prevailing problems they have been highlighting to me: access to land and access to finance. If you want to have young farmers to work on the farms, we have to address these two issues, and it’s one of the topics which we are discussing together. Many of you called for better use of our regional policies to make sure that our rural areas have good schools, have good internet, have good digital and transport infrastructure, because it’s important part for our farmers to be efficient and for young farmers to be, of course, attracted into this profession, and we take it on board. We are working on it, and also with my colleague, Commissioner responsible for regional development, Madam Ferreira. We are really paying a lot of attention to this issue. I think in every intervention today was a call for reduction of bureaucracy and simplification. And again, we hear you loud and clear and we have to work again on this together. On the European level, I am glad that many of you also referred that we have to tackle the gold-plating on the national level, sometimes the specific regional problems by application of the European law. And just to make sure that we will limit the bureaucracies to the minimum. It’s clearly a priority for our Commission. Our President is paying enormous attention to this. And together with the cluster of the Green Deal Commissioners, we are working to make sure that we will also deliver on these very important priorities. I also would like to thank the honourable Members who made clear reference for tackling the unfair trade practices and proper implementation of the directive on unfair trade practices. We completely share your objective, and we are working on making sure that this would be well enforced. Currently, we are at a stage where we are assessing how this is enforced and implemented across the Member States to make sure that it’s uniform, it’s working, it delivers, and of course it brings the results which we need to remove unfair trade practices from agriculture. There was also quite a lot of intervention focused on the ongoing negotiations on the trade agreements. And here again, I would like to be clear and following this debate, I would like to confirm that the Commission assessment is that the conditions for the conclusion of the Mercosur agreement are not met. And to conclude, Madam President – and thank you very much for your indulgence, but the debate was very, very long, and I wanted to respond to as many inquiries as possible – I would like to conclude by reassuring you that we in the Commission feel the sense of urgency, and we act. The strategic dialogue and intensive interaction with our farmers community is ongoing. And if you ask about the concrete steps, just look at the last weeks. I would just recall our proposal on the partial derogation of GAEC 8, which is on the leaving land fallow obligation, where we work with flexibilities. And I believe that together with the Belgian presidency, we will find a good solution for our farmers. The same applies to the agricultural imports from Ukraine, where we do our utmost to make sure that Ukrainian exports will go to the original destinations in the third countries. And if that would not be possible, that we will protect our farmers where and when necessary. And the last word, Madam President, honourable Members, I would recall again, and if you allow me to pass it through our honourable Members to our farmers community. So, dear farmers, we respect you. We value your work, and I believe that we will overcome these challenges which are ahead of us today together.