"Hopefully" - Latvian farmers meet with Agriculture Commissioner Wojciechowski

At the end of last week, representatives of Latvian farmers, together with MEP Roberts Zīles, met with the new European Commission Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski (Poland), in Brussels. This was the first meeting between the two sides after the new Commissioner was confirmed in office in November last year. The new Commissioner has no previous experience working in the European Commission, but has several years of experience working at the European Court of Auditors, as well as 15 years of experience working in the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.

Maira Dzelzkalēja-Burmistre, Deputy Chairwoman of the Board of the Association “Farmers’ Council”: “After previous meetings with Commissioner Wojcikowski, which were not in such a narrow circle, I had mixed feelings – the Commissioner seems to be well-versed in agricultural policy, but he avoids defining certain priorities that he will advocate. This meeting was much more constructive than we had thought. The Commissioner, probably because he himself comes from Poland, understood very well the need for a fair distribution of direct payments between the Member States, defining it as his main priority. We also agreed that the planned reduction of 15% funding in the Rural Development envelope for those Member States that are still “rebuilding” rural areas and farms from a completely different farming model that we knew in Soviet times is unacceptable.

It was also important for us to discuss the new requirements that the European Commission proposes to introduce from 2021, as some of this new “greening” of agriculture will not have the expected effect in the climatic conditions of the Nordic countries. The Commissioner understood what we said, and there are high hopes that we will be able to adapt some of the requirements to our individual circumstances. Overall, we are very grateful for this meeting, even more so because meeting in such a narrow circle is a great privilege that only farmers from a few countries have received so far.''

Roberts Zīle, Member of the European Parliament: “I am truly pleased that, together with farmers' organisations, we managed to organise this meeting, which gave the Commissioner the opportunity to delve into the issues that are important to us and receive recommendations from those who are most directly affected by the Common Agricultural Policy.

Equalizing the amount of support among farmers in the Member States is a priority for Latvia, because it is unacceptable that, while complying with identical requirements and working with significantly higher costs, Latvian farmers continue to receive incomparably lower support than their counterparts in other European countries.

Although the European Union's multiannual budget, on which funding for agriculture depends, is currently within the competence of the European Council and national leaders, we once again emphasized the need to both increase the envelope for direct payments and maintain funding for rural development, which is particularly important given society's growing demands for food and environmentally friendly agriculture.

The Commissioner very well understood the concerns of our farmers regarding new requirements for organic soil treatment, and the agricultural practice typical of Latvia – preparing the soil for sowing summer crops in the fall.”

Latvian farmers were represented at this meeting by Maira Dzelzkalēja-Burmistre and Valters Zelčs (Farmers' Parliament), Edgars Ruža (Latvian Association of Agricultural Cooperatives), Agnese Hauka (Latvian Farmers' Federation) and Kaspars Melnis (Cooperation Council of Agricultural Organizations).