Confederate press conference attended by associate of the European Parliament Anna Bryłka and Bronisław Foltyna, 11 October 2024.
Anna Bryłka:
– Again on the subject of agriculture, due to the fact that Once again, the European Commission is taking steps to destruct Polish but besides European agriculture.
These last fewer weeks are further proposals that simply contribute to reducing food production in Europe, in order to liquidate more farms. And what has happened in fresh weeks is 3 elements:
– first, strategical dialogue,
– secondly, the proposal for a fresh multiannual financial framework for the period 2028-2034
– The 3rd point is to sign unfavourable trade agreements, which are – the intention to sign these agreements – which are simply very unfavourable due to the fact that they open up our EU, but besides the Polish marketplace for imports of agri-food products from 3rd countries.
Strategic dialog is truly a paper that is the European Green Deal under a different name. However, the fact that it contains elements of the European Green Deal for agriculture is only 1 of the points.
That is due to the fact that in this strategical dialogue, this document, which is so well-named, includes provisions that say, among another things, that agriculture will be incorporated into the ETS, the CO2 emissions allowance buyout system.
This paper besides reduces meat consumption.
This paper restricts access to zoonotic products and replaces zoonotic products with plant substitutes.
But what is most crucial in this paper is also, of course, everything under the very good name “compensation”. On the another hand, read precisely on page 67 of the strategical Dialogue: the Commission's commitment to phase out cages should be linked to an appropriate transitional period and warrant full compensation for farmers by means of financial means. What does that mean? This is what it means to pay for the liquidation of farms that are active in livestock farming and breedingOh, my God! It's evidently a beautiful name, but It's nothing more than paying for agricultural decommissioning..
Another point that has emerged in the field of agriculture is Proposal to amend the multiannual financial framework for the period 2028-2034. And in fact, the change that Politico reached, the papers that Politico's service reached, will simply be a immense blow to Poland and to Polish agriculture, due to the fact that This means the end of automatic grants to sectors traditionally supported by the European Union, i.e. agriculture.
Instead of regional policy programmes there will be national envelopes. And what's more, the full budget is to operate on a conditional basis. I mean, in order to receive national money from this pool, circumstantial conditions will should be met, including assumptions specified as organic farming and sex equality! This is likely to be the next large financial position of the European Union.
The Steering Committee will be at the forefront of these funds. This is nothing another than financial blackmail aimed, among others, at Polish farmers, due to the fact that it will be a very akin situation to this situation connected with the National Reconstruction Plan and with milestones, which had to be realised in order to receive this money from the National Reconstruction Plan.
In fact, it would besides mean the abolition of the common agricultural policy if this full budgetary revolution were carried out. And it is highly dangerous due to the fact that Poland pays the membership fee besides to make it a subsidy in Poland. And today, this money can be paid under very strict conditions, paid.
And the last point is these unfavourable trade agreements, due to the fact that October, September are successive rounds of negotiations, including the free trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur. Let me remind you that In general, all associations, agricultural associations across Europe argue this agreement.
I will besides remind you that this agreement was someway blocked at the beginning of the year, in connection with farmers' protests, by French president Emmanuel Macron. Today, after the election of the Head of the European Commission, she comes back again and will most likely be finalised by the end of the year.
This is an highly dangerous deal.. It is simply a mass import of specified agri-food items as beef, like sugar, like poultry. This besides straight threatens Polish farmers.
On the another hand, The second area of uncontrolled imports is of course import of agri-food products from Ukraine. And here too, there is no good news, due to the fact that the European Commission is preparing a fresh expression for trade cooperation between Ukraine and the European Union, which will further mean an open market, including the Polish market, for imports of agricultural goods from Ukraine.
Is this gonna work? This must be put under very strong force and it should be made clear that this import from Ukraine is besides harmful not only for front-end countries, but for another associate States that are sustaining agricultural production.
