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An agitated eve in Brussels where the agriculture ministers of the 27 will meet on Monday for the European Agrifish Council. In fact, the city is preparing for the return of tractors with roads closed to traffic and tram and bus lines diverted. 1,500 tractors are expected from Belgium itself, but also from Holland, Germany and France. With a very clear objective: to reiterate that what the Commission has done so far is not enough. An announced protest that will take place in the same hours in which the European Council will meet to examine the package of proposals launched by the Commission last Thursday with a priority objective: to simplify the rules that farmers are asked to respect and halve the controls.
The package on the Agrifish table
The package also provides a moratorium on sanctions for those who do not comply with European obligations due to environmental disasters. To all this must be added the stop for the whole of 2024 – already decided by Palazzo Berlaymont – to set aside 4% of the land. However, the Commission’s ongoing change, supported by most member countries, has not been enough to calm the anger of farmers which continues to spread across the continent and which is also finding fertile ground in Italy.
Wojciechowski’s opening on the reform of the CAP
And, meanwhile, on the eve of the new summit, the European commissioner for agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, has opened up the reform of the CAP, the common agricultural policy. “Now we have to improve the reform of the CAP, simplify the eco-schemes, say to what extent aid conditioned on good environmental practices is mandatory or voluntary”, he explained in an interview granted to France Presse. “The political climate, especially thanks to the farmers’ protests, is ripe for serious reflection on future changes to the CAP”, he clarified in response to those who reminded him of the farmers’ protests against imports from Ukraine and the constraints imposed by the Green Deal. «In the short term – added Wojciechowski -, we need greater flexibility in the interpretation of current legislation, such as what we have proposed on reducing the number of checks or on greater tolerance in cases of force majeure. In the medium term we must bring changes to the reform”.
The moves of Confagricoltura and Coldiretti
In conjunction with Agrifish, also in Brussels, the Confagricoltura assembly will be held, which will define a series of proposals to be forwarded to the EU. Coldiretti will also return to the Belgian capital, leading a procession that will start from the European Chamber. «We will be more than three thousand», announced President Ettore Prandini. If the climate outside the Europa Building, where the farmers’ protest will arrive, will be hot, the Agrifish will not lack the fibrillations either.
Minister Lollobrigida’s proposal
In fact, in several executives, the alarm has now gone off: with just over three months left, the risk for everyone is not to lose a considerable portion of the electorate. The Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry Francesco Lollobrigida has announced that he will bring an Italian document to Brussels for the strengthening of the CAP. In the document, among other things, the Commission will be asked to suspend state aid rules for the sector, following the model of what was done in the pandemic era, and a moratorium for the debts of companies in the sector in all member countries. «The issue of international agreements is also decisive, which must be based on reciprocity criteria to import products subject to the same standards that our farmers and fishermen are obliged to respect», underlined Lollobrigida.