“I’ve been saying that for a long time I have the same reservations about the way some officials of the European Commission operate and overwhelm European farmers with their reports or the number of checks. It is not possible to continue in this way any longer,” said Excellent. He repeated that the goals of the EU’s Green Deal for Europe, against which farmers are also protesting today, must be realistic. “I am glad that today it was clearly stated that Czech farmers are aware that this agreement is absolutely essential and key to maintaining high-quality Czech arable land and our environment,” he added.
In the case of a tariff-free agreement with Ukraine, Výborný emphasized the need to continue to economically support the attacked country. However, it is necessary that the same conditions apply to all farmers, so that, for example, Czech farmers do not lose their competitiveness.
I understand the farmers’ demonstrations today. I, too, am bothered by the unnecessary bureaucracy or some of the unrealistic demands that the EU places on our farmers. I am fighting to change that. I also take today’s protest as support for my meeting at the Council of Ministers in Brussels, where I am going on Monday.
— Marek Vyborny (@MarekVyborny) February 22, 2024
Regarding proposals to improve the state of Czech agriculture, which include, for example, the non-payment of agricultural subsidies, Výborný said that he is discussing them in the coalition. By the end of the week, he should receive the opinion of the coalition partners and, in the next week, discuss the impact of the proposals on the state budget, for example, with the Minister of Finance Zbyňek Stanjura (ODS).
About 3,000 pieces of agricultural machinery went to the borders with Slovakia, Poland and Germany today in the Czech Republic in protest against EU policy. Farmers are also protesting in the centers of some large cities, the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic informed. According to her, several thousand Czech farmers joined the protest. The President of the Agrarian Chamber, Jan Doležal, described the situation of farmers as “really desperate”.
Today’s protest was also attended by farmers from Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, i.e. the Visegrad Four countries, as well as Lithuania and Latvia. Farmers from some Balkan countries, including Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovenia, were also supposed to support them.
The Prime Minister after visiting the farm: We must advance in digitization
Fiala said that he takes farmers’ problems seriously. “Strong regulations and bureaucracy make no one happy. We regularly discuss with representatives of farmers and with individual farmers,” wrote the Prime Minister, who today visited the Hole family farm, which belongs to the Poláček family, as proof of his support for farmers.
“We mainly dealt with what we can (not only) do in Brussels to reduce bureaucracy and regulation, which create a lot of pressure on farmers. We need to advance digitization and reduce the amount of checks so that farmers can focus on their work. And that’s exactly what the Ministry of Agriculture is already working on,” said Fiala, who attached photos from the visit. For example, you went through a cow shed.
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The European Commission in the evening presented proposals to simplify the administrative burden for farmers and other measures to ease the pressure farmers face. Among other things, she would like to simplify some of the conditions that farmers in the European Union must meet in order to receive subsidies. On Monday, the proposals will be discussed by the ministers of agriculture of the 27 EU member states, who will meet in Brussels.
The Commission states in its proposals that it wants relax requirements to maintain permanent grassland to mitigate loss of income; what this means for former livestock farmers who have switched to growing other crops.
The list also includes clarification of the use of the terms “force majeure” and “extraordinary circumstances”, in order to prevent farmers from being penalized for non-compliance with the conditions of the common agricultural policy. In March, the EC plans to launch online consultations and later develop a detailed analysis, the goal of which is to identify the most serious impacts of the complex legal framework on farmers.
Above all, the Commission also proposes “simplify the methodology of some checks” with the aim of “reducing by up to 50 percent the number of visits to agricultural holdings carried out by national administrative authorities”. The intention is “to rationalize and refine the evaluation of area monitoring” thanks to “automated image analysis” from Europe’s Copernicus satellite program. “This measure is a direct response to member states’ requests,” states in the EC press statement.
