Minister of Agriculture Marek Výborný (KDU-ČSL) wants to target support to medium-sized enterprises. The government aims to support employment in the countryside and not provide subsidies, he said to the adjustment of the strategic plan, which he wants to have ready by the end of February. After today’s meeting with representatives of the Agrarian Chamber, the Agricultural Union and the Association of Private Agriculture and Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) at the Straka Academy, he told journalists that at the extraordinary European Council in Brussels on February 26, the Czech Republic will take the position of de-bureaucratizing the field. Like the Prime Minister, he emphasized that the participants clearly distanced themselves from the announced Monday farmers’ protest in Prague at the meeting. The agrarian chamber will join a symbolic ride across Europe on February 22, Fiala said. Excellent perceives this protest as support for the Czech position at the negotiations in Brussels.
Unnecessary bureaucracy
According to the prime minister, the Czech and European debate on the development of agriculture cannot be separated. “We agree that there is too much regulation and a high level of bureaucracy in Europe,” he said. A dialogue similar to that conducted by the Czech government with representatives of farmers must also be conducted at the EU level. According to Výborný, the coalition experts have already agreed on some adjustments to the rules in agriculture, and are preparing steps to de-bureaucratize the field. In the case of support, the coalition is based on the fact that, after strengthening the position of small businesses in recent years, it is necessary to maintain medium-sized companies so that Czech agriculture is varied. According to Fiala, the changes are necessary so that agriculture can fulfill the functions required of it, i.e. available food at reasonable prices, but also rural development, for example.
Czech farmers have been complaining for a long time about the bureaucratic burden, the control system or the setting of the subsidy policy. In addition, according to them, they are also troubled by rising costs. For example, the Association of Private Agriculture this week presented ten proposals that, according to it, would contribute to the improvement of agriculture.
These include capping subsidies or maintaining the current form of the so-called redistributive payment, which all applicants receive for the first 150 hectares of their agricultural land. The Agricultural Union has previously drawn attention to the fact that according to his internal survey, the profit of agricultural companies fell to 8.7 billion crowns last year from 22 billion in 2022.
On February 19, they will block the highway in Prague
On Monday, February 19, some farmers want to block the Prague highway. According to the organizers, the chairman of the Trade Union of Agriculture and Food Workers and the Association of Free Trade Unions Bohumír Dufek and the former president of the Agrarian Chamber and entrepreneur Zdeňko Jandejsko, 600 to 1,000 tractors or other agricultural equipment could arrive.
February 22 mass demonstrations in Europe?
At the pan-European level, the Agrarian Chamber joins the protests. With agricultural organizations from Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia called for mass demonstrations on Thursday, February 22. With their machines, farmers plan to stand on the frontier. They want to express their disapproval of the EU’s Green Agreement for Europe, the goal of which is to achieve climate neutrality by the twenty-seventh by 2050. The farmers also point to what they believe is unfair foreign competition.
The Czech Republic’s foreign trade in agricultural goods again ended last year with a negative balance, this time 38 billion crowns. Compared to 2022, the deficit was 19.1 percent lower. Exports increased by 11.3 percent to 305.8 billion crowns, imports by 6.9 percent to 343.8 billion crowns.
Last year, imports from EU countries to the Czech Republic increased by approximately 6.7 percent to 282.1 billion crowns, from countries outside the EU by 7.3 percent to 60.4 billion crowns. Exports to EU countries reached 275.3 billion crowns last year, which was about 11.5 percent more year-on-year. Goods worth 30.5 billion crowns were sent to countries outside the EU last year, and 27.8 billion crowns in 2022.
