The Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament will discuss on Thursday with the Commission's Vice-President, Frans Timmermans, how European agriculture can become more sustainable after the corona pandemic. This is the first opportunity for the Agriculture Committee to question Timmermans about his yet-to-be-published plans.
The remote video debate with Timmermans will likely focus primarily on the future financial support of the agricultural sectors. Some Members of the European Parliament advocate including the agricultural sector in the corona mega recovery fund; others consider it ‘safer’ to stick to the current budgets for the existing Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
However, there is still no agreement among EU Commissioners, ministers, and heads of government regarding this mega recovery fund. Timmermans previously announced a new Environment and Climate policy (‘Green Deal’) through which the agricultural sector will also face new demands to produce more sustainably and environmentally friendly.
But in these days, the European Commission must revise all previous plans 'in the post-corona period' (read: scale them down) in order to free up hundreds of billions for economic recovery and support for businesses. As a result, Timmermans will not only have to postpone or adjust his Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy, but the situation will also arise in which Climate and Environmental conditions may be attached to European (corona) recovery subsidies in the coming years. This could make the conditions from the Green Deal part of a European corona lifeline for many industries and sectors in many EU countries.
Earlier this week, agricultural organizations from the three Baltic Sea countries Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania called on the European Commission to link the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to the new corona mega recovery fund. The Baltic farmers advocate using the new multiannual financial framework (2021-2027) for a strong and fair recovery of EU economies after the corona pandemic, according to the Latvian farmers’ organization Farmers ‘Assembly.
The Baltic farmers believe that the recovery measures must finally put an end to the long-standing inequality between EU farmers. They point out that since the three Baltic countries joined the EU in 2004, they have received the lowest direct payments, about half the average payments given to other EU farmers. According to the letter’s authors, these payments were based on incorrect calculations of the productivity of Baltic farmers before they joined the EU.