What awaits the following European Commissioner for Agriculture | EUROtoday

EBetween pure disasters, regulatory pressures and unfair worldwide competitors, concern hung over the Agri-Peche Council which met in Brussels on Monday. The European Agriculture Ministers sounded the alarm on the state of the agricultural sector. Due to the switch of energy, neither Annie Genevard, the brand new French Minister, nor Marc Fesneau might be current in Brussels. Nor might the brand new Commissioner for Agriculture, Luxembourg's Christophe Hansen (EPP), since he won’t take up his duties till the tip of the yr.

The 42-year-old Luxembourger, a former MEP, should first attend hearings earlier than the European Parliament. He will typically have the chance to satisfy his cousin, Martine Hansen, who has been Minister of Agriculture in her nation since November 2023. Christophe Hansen, as an MEP, sat on the Committee on International Trade and was a substitute on the Committee on the Environment.

A beneficiant pockets

The Luxembourger inherits a portfolio as beneficiant as a plate of sauerkraut. President von der Leyen has set him a five-star menu in her mission letter: concoct a “vision for Agriculture” in lower than 100 days (a report for Brussels paperwork), enhance the competitiveness of European farmers whereas greening the CAP, and play Robin Hood within the face of the agri-food giants which are crushing costs. The cherry on the cake is that he should rejuvenate an growing older occupation. The harrow should be very heavy to hint a sustainable furrow…

READ ALSO Six issues to recollect from the brand new European Commission “The CAP must once again become the instrument that guarantees farmers' income,” insisted Francesco Lollobrigida, the Italian minister, setting the tone for a gathering marked by a number of crises. His German counterpart, Cem Ozdemir, insisted on the urgency of European solidarity within the face of the floods which have hit a number of Member States. “We stand alongside our European partners and friends in the face of the suffering that people are experiencing there,” he declared, welcoming in passing the announcement of 10 billion euros from the cohesion fund for the disaster-stricken areas.

But it was maybe Dutch Minister Femke Wiersma who greatest summed up the final temper: “Politically, I think a slightly different wind is blowing everywhere. The question is how hard it is blowing.” A metaphor that takes on its full that means in gentle of the Strohschneider report, ensuing from the Strategic Dialogue launched by Ursula von der Leyen, and which occupied a great a part of the discussions.

Poland not satisfied by Strohschneider report

This report, an actual roadmap for tomorrow's European agriculture, has acquired a blended reception. While Cem Ozdemir welcomed its “balanced approach”, looking for to reconcile the pursuits of agriculture and environmental safety, others, such because the Pole Czesław Siekierski, harassed that the conclusions remained “too general” and didn’t sufficiently meet farmers' expectations.

The Hungarian Zsolt Feldman, who holds the rotating presidency of the Council, himself acknowledged that “some passages are problematic, particularly with regard to the future of livestock farming”. In this space, the Strohschneider report recognises the development in direction of lowering the consumption of animal merchandise and helps a rebalancing in direction of plant proteins. It goals to reconcile environmental sustainability, animal welfare and the financial viability of the sector. A stone within the backyard of the long run Commissioner for Agriculture, the Luxembourger Christophe Hansen, who can have the troublesome activity of reworking these suggestions into concrete actions.

Franco-German proposal for elevated state support

But past strategic concerns, it was the urgency of on a regular basis life that dominated the debates. The Franco-German proposal to extend de minimis support, small state support granted to corporations, to €50,000 acquired large help from 16 member states. These de minimis aids, a veritable lifeline for farmers in problem, are subsidies that states can grant with out prior authorisation from Brussels, supplied that they don’t exceed a sure ceiling – at the moment set at €20,000 per farm over three years. By proposing to lift this ceiling to greater than double, Paris and Berlin have clearly put their finger on the crying want for liquidity in European countrysides. But when? “It’s a matter of weeks. I’m thinking more of a few weeks, not months,” mentioned Polish Minister Siekierski, stressing the urgency of the state of affairs for a lot of farmers hit by pure disasters.

The ministers additionally sounded the alarm over unfair competitors, notably from Ukraine. “There is no level playing field, and that is what has affected our producers,” harassed Hungarian Feldman, summing up a extensively shared sentiment. The Bulgarian delegation pointed to an issue with egg imports from Ukraine. “We looked at the different tools the European Union has to protect its market and producers,” the Polish minister mentioned. A brand new automated safeguard mechanism requires the European Commission to reintroduce tariff price quotas if imports of poultry, eggs, sugar, oats, corn, groats and honey exceed the arithmetic imply of the portions imported within the second half of 2021, in 2022 and in 2023.

In the face of this gloomy image, there’s a glimmer of hope: the said want to simplify the CAP. “Simplification should not mean generating more paperwork,” insisted the Hungarian presidency, in what appears like a collective mea culpa within the face of Brussels paperwork.