Czy Europa może uczynić rolnictwo ekologiczne konkurencyjnym?
W ubiegłym roku rolnicy protestowali przeciwko biurokracji związanej z finansowaniem UE, a ich demonstracje przyniosły rezultaty. Komisja Europejska upraszcza obowiązki środowiskowe dla rolników, ale jak zreformuje Wspólną Politykę Rolną w kolejnym budżecie UE?
CZYTAJ WIĘCEJ : http://pl.euronews.com/2025/06/03/czy-europa-moze-uczynic-rolnictwo-ekologiczne-konkurencyjnym
Zasubskrybuj nasz kanał.Euronews jest dostępny na Dailymotion w 12 językach
00:13Farmers' protest a year ago against bureaucracy attached to EU funding have yielded results.
00:20The European Commission has been simplifying farmers' environmental obligations,
00:24which in turn led to criticism by supporters of the European Green Deal.
00:30Meanwhile, farmers are preparing a new battlefront to avoid cuts in the Common Agricultural Policy in the next EU budget.
00:38The reform of European agriculture is at the heart of this EU decoded.
00:42The legislative simplification aims to save farmers 1.58 billion euros and member states 210 million euros per year.
00:52To achieve that, the European Commission proposes easier payments for small farmers,
00:56including a raise of the annual lump sum to 2,500 euros,
01:01more flexible environmental controls, including for conservation of peatlands, wetlands and watercourses,
01:08easier mechanism to be reimbursed in case of natural disaster or animal disease,
01:13a single digital system to reduce paperwork.
01:16Farmers are pleased, but environmentalists say that measures will backfire.
01:22The latter argue that less environmental protection could lead to more climate change that could harm agriculture.
01:29Here's what some Europeans think about this challenge.
01:32I think the normative, if it is the question, has to be much more strict and encourage them to help them,
01:40but on the other hand, control them the way they have to act and legal.
01:45But they have to have certain norms that allow them to preserve both the environment and the health of everyone.
01:53I think there's a lot of bureaucracy in Europe, so that's why farmers have so many norms.
02:00If the farmers lose their ability to have income, they're going to stop producing,
02:05and then what's going to happen to us, the consumers?
02:07The responsibility is being put on them rather than the actual culprits, which are massive corporations.
02:13We can't renounce to agriculture in Europe. We don't have to be dependent on importations.
02:21With me is Gerardo Fortuna, one of Euronews' agriculture policy experts.
02:26What is the expected outcome of simplifying the EU agriculture rulebook?
02:31The goal is to make farmers' lives easier, basically, insist on their livelihoods and their well-being.
02:38And it's, of course, clearly in response to the major farmers' protests that we've seen last year in Brussels
02:45and across the rest of the EU countries.
02:47So how does agriculture has to evolve in the European Union in order to meet its goals for climate and environmental protection within the Green Deal?
02:57I'm a bit pessimistic about it because the agriculture and food part of the Green Deal, the farm-to-fork strategy,
03:05has been put aside in this mandate. It's been replaced by this EU agriculture and food vision that is not meeting the same environmental concerns, let's say.
03:16There will be an attempt from EU lawmakers to try to meet the environmental targets through innovation and technology rather than just stricter regulation.
03:27The next battle for farmers will be the common agriculture policy revision within the new EU budget for 2028-2034.
03:37What are the farmers' demands regarding this fund?
03:40This time is a bit different because they might lose the rural development, so it's the second pillar of the commercial policy,
03:47which includes environmental investments but also support rural communities.
03:53And at the same time they want these payments to be indexed to inflation and they also want a stronger protection when it comes to trade deals.
04:03Thank you, Gerardo. Let's see now some more data on this agriculture reform.
04:08In the EU budget for 2021-2027, the cap received 386.6 billion euros, about one-third of the total budget.
04:19For the 2028-2034 budget, the Commission advocates merging the cap with the cohesion fund, the latter used for regional development.
04:28The new financial instrument, called National and Regional Investment Partnerships, may be presented in July.
04:35The European Parliament opposes this idea and, in recent resolution, demanded that the fund remain autonomous
04:42and receive even more funds in the next budget.
04:45Let's hear the positions of two entities with opposing views on this subject,
04:50the environmental organization Client Earth and the Farmers' Association Copacosheca.
04:55So in these proposals, clearly the environmental objectives are there.
05:06The Commission intervenes on some elements in which the first two years of implementation of the CAP,
05:12which proved to be unworkable for our farmers.
05:16What we absolutely need to understand is that farming relies on nature.
05:22So when the EU, since actually several years, is postponing or stripping off environmental rules,
05:33it also jeopardizes the future of farming, of farmers' jobs, of farmers' health,
05:40because they are impacted by some practices as well.
05:47If you think that the average farm size is 17 hectares, so you have the small, the medium, the bigger.
05:56But the key element is the diversity. So we are able to maintain this diversity,
06:01which allows to contribute to food security in Europe, but also reduce food insecurity outside Europe.
06:10From my point of view, the competitivity of the EU or its food sovereignty is not guaranteed in the long term,
06:17because we do not have a resilience in front of natural harm that is being caused,
06:25notably by farming practices, intensive practices, but that farmers are also victims of.
06:32It is not addressing the causes that put farmers in these situations,
06:37which is climate change and the degradation of the environment, the loss of pollinators, and so on and so forth.
06:44Europe needs to invest in agriculture, and with a strong budget increase to inflation.
06:54We call to maintain a common policy, able to ensure a single market,
07:00invest to do the transition that society wants, and actually support a strategic sector as agriculture.
07:10I think that we need to invest in agriculture, so we need money for the agriculture sector,
07:17but we need this money to not constitute harmful subsidies.
07:21Currently, only 20% of the beneficiaries of the cap receive 80% of the subsidies. This is enormous.
07:31The long and sometimes violent wave of protests by farmers ahead of the 2024 European elections
07:38has changed the discourse on the Green Deal.
07:40The majority in the European Parliament is now calling for more support for agriculture
07:45and less ambitions for the ecological transition.
07:48The negotiations on the next EU budget will test how deep the bloc's agricultural reform will be.
