The Minister of Agriculture, Maria do Seu Antunes, denied this Monday that the measures that are being prepared in response to the current needs of the sector are a concession in the face of demonstrations by farmers on the streets, especially in environmental policy.
“We are not going back,” the minister told reporters in statements on the sidelines of the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries, which met in Brussels today.
“We are demanding a waiver, a longer period of time” and even “greater conditions of predictability” for the implementation of measures that farmers must comply with in order to receive support.
Maria do Ceu Antunes added that the current Common Agricultural Policy (PAC), after the mid-term review, has only been in force for a year and the impact of the policy measures still needs to be assessed.
Faced with an apparent fall in farmers’ incomes, he added, the European Commission proposed measures that were “clearly insufficient and we expect a more serious and ambitious proposal” to be presented in the coming weeks, he said.
The official stressed that there had already been a 12% drop in farm incomes in 2022 and that it had not yet been offset by the 8% to 9% recovery already this year.
The 27 agriculture ministers met this Monday in Brussels to review Commission measures, namely the simplification of CAP rules, such as some of the cross-compliance requirements that EU farmers must comply with, and the exemption of small agricultural holdings with an area of less than ten hectares from controls. related to compliance with obligations.
Near the headquarters of the Council and the Commission, farmers demonstrated and broke the police security cordon, which ultimately led to clashes with law enforcement agencies.
In recent weeks, the sector has demonstrated in several Member States, including Portugal, a demand for better support for the crisis they are facing, namely rising production costs, competition from third countries and the discrepancy between producer and consumer prices.