EU budgets for the CAP generate great controversy in the sector

The European Commission presented on Wednesday its proposal for the next budget of the European Union (EU), which covers from 2021 to 2027 and which proposes cuts in agricultural and cohesion funds – 5% and 7%. A proposal that has not sat well in the sector and has led to multiple groups such as Cooperativas Agro-Alimentarias de España, UPA, ASAJA or COAG have expressed their rejection of these cuts.

The money will now go to policies such as immigration, security and defense and research, innovation and digital economy.

Agro-Alimentary Cooperatives of Spain

For Agri-food Cooperatives of Spain, the European Commission is “disproportionate” in its cuts on the CAP and the cohesion policy, and little ambitious regarding the new priorities that the EU must finance in security, defense and immigration. “It was expected that the European Commission would present a budget proposal close to 1.3% of the EU’s GNI, that of the European Parliament, and not the final 1.11%. De facto supposes a freezing of the community budget if the impact of Brexit and inflation is taken into account. The proposal of the European Parliament is more realistic, respects the current EU policies and adequately finance the new priorities, “they explained from the organization.

This proposal, cataloged by Cooperativas Agro-Alimentarias de España, apart from being “negative and disappointing”, “costs less than a daily coffee to a European citizen, and provides a large number of benefits that directly impact their daily life and serves to to deal with and manage problems that can not be faced in isolation for any EU Member State or region. The EU budget is not a cost, it is an investment in more efficient Community policies and they download the accounts of the Member States, “they have denounced.

UPA

“What the European Commission intends with the CAP is impossible”. This has been expressed from the Union of Small Farmers and Cattle Ranchers after knowing the proposal of the EU budget for the years 2021 to 2027. “They want farmers and ranchers to do miracles,” they said. “Let them tell us how we are going to produce more food, more varied and sustainable, at very low prices, each time with less aid”, they ask.

In the words of the Secretary General of UPA, Lorenzo Ramos, the European Union “wants us to be farmers and ranchers, once again, the pagans of historical nonsense like the Brexit, or to assume the budget increases to curb people who want enter Europe. ” However, this is “a trap,” he says, since the CAP “is not a policy for farmers, but for the entire society.”

“Spanish farmers and ranchers will not accept the cut that the Commission has proposed,” Ramos assured, while urging the European Parliament and the Council of the EU to oppose this proposal. “They will have us in front,” he has sentenced.

ASAJA

The Organization demands that the contributions of the Member States be increased to 1.3% of the Gross National Product and considers “unacceptable” the measures proposed by the European Commission for the next Multiannual Financial Framework that imply a 5% cut for the next budget of the CAP and another cut of 4% in direct payments.

Also, from the association have criticized that the calculation of these budgets of the future CAP, has been made through current prices, which is misleading because it does not take into account inflation, variable is essential when calculating budgets to develop policies .

In the opinion of ASAJA, the European Commission can not charge on the backs of farmers the cost of leaving the United Kingdom (Brexit) of the EU. Therefore, we demand that the contributions of the EEMMs be increased to the Community budget up to 1.3% of the Gross National Product, as demanded by the sector as a whole and by the European Parliament itself.

COAG

For its part, the Coordinator of Farmers and Livestock Organizations (COAG) has also called “unacceptable” the 5% cut in the budget of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) – “If we take into account inflation throughout the all the budget period (estimated by the EC at 2% per annum), the cut announced would mean a real loss of 16.6% of the aid received by farmers, “reflects the comparative analysis prepared by COAG Technical Services.

In addition, COAG considers that the budget framework presented is clearly insufficient to address the new demands, commitments and challenges raised in the communication from the European Commission on the future of the CAP, food and agriculture after 2020. “It is contradictory and inconsistent that in order to respond to the main demands of European citizens (fight against climate change, food security, environmental conservation, circular economy, rural development), the EU proposes a further reduction of Community support to farmers and cattlemen The implementation of the new measures would imply higher costs in agricultural operations and therefore it is more necessary than ever a greater budgetary allocation to maintain the viability of small and medium-sized farms “, underlined Miguel Blanco, General Secretary of COAG.

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