European Union member states are once again pressing Brussels to help quell protests staged by farmers across the bloc for weeks. Spain and twenty-one other member countries sent a letter to the European Green Deal vice president, Maroš Šefčovič, and the agriculture commissioner, Janusz Wojciechowski, demanding urgent, very short-term responses to the sector’s most pressing problems. The initiative is led by Spain’s Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, and France’s Marc Fesneau.
The letter was made public ahead of the upcoming Council of Agriculture and Fisheries meeting in Brussels on March 26, which brings together the top officials in charge of agriculture. It is released just three days before Spanish farmers return to Madrid’s streets. The ministers argue that the issue extends beyond individual nations and constitutes a European-scale crisis. They contend that a European crisis requires European solutions and, while acknowledging Commission efforts, call for faster and clearer actions.
Firm and Immediate Action
“We know the Commission is ready to respond, and we recognize that work has already begun. Now we expect firm and immediate action,” the text states. The ministers add that farmers’ problems “are sometimes quite simple to solve if we collectively provide the means to do so.” They urge swift action on matters such as conditionality, the pressure from audits, and the simplification of managing the national strategic plans of the Common Agricultural Policy, or CAP.
They insist on precision regarding both direction and timelines. The letter calls for clear perspectives for professionals and a concrete action calendar with milestones. It emphasizes communicating medium-term changes before autumn and making them as visible as possible. The primary triggers for protests are cited as low average incomes, rising production costs, stricter rules, and a lack of recognition of the strategic nature of farming activities.
Opposition to the European Green Deal
“Farmers’ perceptions of the European Green Deal raise concerns rather than shared ambitions,” the letter notes. “These newer, stricter rules become increasingly hard on farmers, especially when third-country products do not face the same production standards,” it adds. It also highlights difficulties in achieving generational renewal, the greater impact of rules aimed at reducing climate change, “even though farmers are among the first to suffer.” The letter argues that the first year of managing the new CAP has become extremely complex for both farmers and administrations.
The Commission will need to provide analyses and address possible competition distortions from imported products, the document concludes. The letter, sent on March 5, is signed by the agriculture ministers of Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia.