The European Commission’s concessions are minimal, tactical and forced by agricultural protests and the upcoming European Parliament elections, PiS MP and former Agriculture Minister Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski said on Monday, commenting on Friday’s announcement on the easing of the Green Deal.
On Friday, the European Commission published a draft amendment to two regulations related to the Green Deal. The proposals include: abolition of the set-aside obligation, choice between crop diversification and rotation, simplifications regarding the maintenance of the land cover. The head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Czesław Siekierski, positively assessed these proposals.
These are only tactical concessions, somewhat forced by the situation and the agricultural protests in Europe, including Poland, and the upcoming European Parliament elections. There is no more important reflection and change in the European Union’s climate policy, a deviation from this policy that will affect everyone, not just farmers.
– said Ardanowski during Monday’s press conference in Lublin. But as he noted, “any relaxation of the Green Deal should be welcomed.”
The EC’s concessions are minimal, insignificant and certainly do not satisfy the farmers, as they still do not guarantee the economic survival of the farms.
– emphasized the PiS politician.
According to him, the situation in agriculture is difficult, farmers are expressing their dissatisfaction and he expressed his belief that protests will continue throughout Europe.
The European Union, Ardanowski said, is pursuing an “increasingly illogical policy of destroying agriculture, under the slogan that agriculture harms nature.” He added that these policies are mainly created by the European People’s Party.
Speaking about the full opening of EU countries to food from Ukraine, he said the decision was taken by the European Commission “with penalties if anyone did not want to implement this decision to open up.” As he said, PiS “at one point had the courage to suspend imports from Ukraine and pay farmers very large compensation for market losses caused by the European Commission’s decision,” but that happened too late, which – according to Ardanowski – ‘was a big blow’. mistake, PiS’s fault” and contributed to lower support in rural areas.
I am absolutely convinced that if those currently in power in Poland were in power, there would be no closure, restriction or suspension of imports from Ukraine.
– he said.
According to a PiS politician, Prime Minister Donald Tusk is not interested in solving agricultural problems and wants to ‘maintain and tire them out’.
According to Ardanowski, Poland should be the initiator of a “serious debate in Europe” on the new common agricultural policy, which would also take food security into account.
We must reinvent the common agricultural policy. She brought great success. Since the Treaties of Rome, when it was written that the point was that consumers in Europe would have sufficient food at reasonable prices, but at the same time that farmers would survive and live with dignity by producing food for consumers. This policy is falling apart before our eyes. The European Union’s policies are leading to the destruction of this agriculture and the farmers are noticing it. Certainly, these concessions – highly symbolic – do not solve the problem in any way
– said the PiS politician.
According to Ardanowski, commercial farms that have invested in land, new equipment and technologies in recent years are at risk of collapse.
If they have no place to sell it on the market, if they are driven out of this market by Ukrainian food, or if it is not possible to export from Poland to other EU countries – and above all: that is where we get the surplus have invested in. of our food – then these farms will go bankrupt.
– he said.
Support for PiS candidates
During the conference, Ardanowski supported PiS candidates for the Lublin Voivodeship Assembly: Marek Wojciechowski, Krzysztof Gałaszkiewicz and Tomasz Solis.
Peasant protests have been going on in Poland and other EU countries for weeks. In Poland, their demands include abandoning the provisions of the Green Deal, closing the borders against the influx of agri-food products from outside the EU and defending livestock farming in Poland.
The European Green Deal introduces many directives, including: agriculture, that should enable Europe to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. The idea is to introduce a more ecological and less emission-intensive production through the use of set-aside land, halving the use of fertilizers and crop protection products and mandatorily allocating 25% of land for organic crops.
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Source: wPolityce