Deputy Speaker of the Farmers' Parliament in Athens calls for simplifying EU agricultural policy and giving member states more freedom in decision-making

Yesterday, on May 6, Maira Dzelzkalēja, Deputy Chairwoman of the Board of the Association "Farmers' Council" and Vice President of the European Union's umbrella organization of farmers, COPA, participated At the informal meeting of the European Union (EU) Council of Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers in Athens. Addressing the ministers present, she represented the views of all European farmers, calling for the diversity of agriculture in the European Union to be turned into an advantage for the European Union.

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Maira Dzelzkalēja, Deputy Chairwoman of the Board of the Association "Farmers' Council": "More than 12 million European farms are very different – both in their specialization and the farming methods used, and in terms of size – climatic and soil conditions, as well as the environment and traditions, differ drastically. However, agricultural policy is one and the same. The new policy gives Member States a small amount of flexibility, but it is not always sufficient to take into account national conditions and needs. At the moment, when the final refinements are underway, in order to successfully implement the new policy next year, it is very important to find the simplest possible solutions to how, taking into account the specificities and diversity of the Member States, the new requirements can be introduced in a way that promotes the competitiveness of farms and ensures their economic stability. Only a modern and developing agricultural sector will be able to ensure normal generational succession and will be able to make its contribution to ensuring jobs and the viability of rural regions. To achieve this, the EU must promote the implementation of agricultural science and innovation results in practical life, find the best solutions for increasing energy and resource efficiency in the sector.”

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This year, decisions are being finalized to implement the reform of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy, which has set the sector's activities for the next seven years. As part of the reform, new and costly requirements have been adopted for farms, which European and Latvian farmers will have to comply with from 2015. One of such requirements is greening, which includes the parallel cultivation of several crops on farms where arable land exceeds 30 ha, as well as the provision of eco-focus (non-production areas) on farms of at least 5%. Although the introduction of such requirements would be supported in many countries with very intensive agriculture, it is not suitable for Latvian conditions, as it ignores traditional crop rotation, forces the cultivation of potentially unprofitable crops and creates artificial natural elements, ignoring the traditional Latvian rural landscape. Such a measure will be very expensive for farmers, will be complicated to administer, and the benefit to the environment is questionable.

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About the EU farmers' umbrella organisation COPA

COPA was founded in 1958 and is a European-level committee of professional farmers' organizations, representing farmers in the European Union and international institutions. Currently, COPA's president is the Dutch farmer Albert Jans Mats and one of the six vice-presidents is Maira Dzelzkalēja, who represents the Baltic and Nordic countries. The association "Farmers' Council" has been a full-fledged COPA member organization since 2004.