Irish farmers understand Baltic farmers' struggle, but are concerned about budget cuts for Irish farmers

Following the Baltic farmers' action in Brussels, Maira Dzelzkalēja, a representative of the Farmers' Parliament, and Uldis Krievārs, a representative of the Latvian Agricultural Cooperatives Association, as part of the Baltic farmers' delegation, met with the leadership of the Irish Farmers' Association. During the meeting, the farmers decided to work together to ensure a balanced implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy reforms after 2013.

All European farmers are actively following and developing positions on the issue of direct payments. Like farmers in other countries, Irish farmers understand the Baltic situation and conceptually support our fight for equal competition, and they also recognize that if Irish farmers were in a similar situation, they would fight for their competitiveness in the common market just like we do.

However, understanding the Baltics' desire to immediately equalize payments to a "comfort level" of 80 % from the EU average, Irish farmers are aware that in that case they will have to "share" with us. At the moment, they are most concerned about a possible reduction in the common European budget, so Irish farmers emphasize that if the agricultural budget is reduced by 10 %, then they will also insist that the proportional reduction goes to everyone. In that case, Latvia's hopes for a faster equalization of payments will decrease.

Like Baltic farmers, Irish farmers are also worried definition of active farmer, proposed by the EC as a criterion for receiving payments. Irish farmers consider it very important that the support reaches real, productive farmers. When discussing possible criteria, farmer representatives agreed that one of the criteria could be a minimum livestock density for grassland, which would exclude from the beneficiaries those who are not engaged in agriculture or do not want to continue farming.

Unlike Baltic farmers, the Irish do not support increasing the eligible areas in order to provide more support to farmers who are already producing and have made investments. In turn, Baltic representatives explained that we still have an unused potential of about 1 million hectares, so it is important for the Baltics that this unused agricultural land is returned to production.

Maira Dzelzkalēja, Deputy Chairperson of the Farmers' Parliament, emphasizes that such meetings with farmers from other countries and explaining the Baltic position are very valuable. It is precisely in such meetings that there is an opportunity to explain in detail the situation in which Baltic farmers work and compete. However, they also provide an opportunity to discuss and find common interests and agree on common and mutually supportive solutions to issues.

"It is understandable that farmers from other European countries will not enthusiastically and willingly give up their support payments, but we must try to at least achieve their understanding and find issues on which we can cooperate and support each other. It is very likely that it is the Baltics' persistent struggle and targeted negotiations that will allow us to find many other compromises for improving the CAP in the future," says Dzelzkalēja.

Last weekend, representatives of Baltic farmers were also invited to a meeting by the office of EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Čalóš. After the conversation with the Commissioner's Office, M.Dzelzkalėja emphasizes, "Although the protest action at the European Council was allowed only for 40 Baltic farmers, it once again attracted the attention of decision-making institutions to the unresolved problem of Baltic farmers. Although the EC currently does not play a leading role in decision-making, it is important that we were able to recall our problems and discuss not only direct payments, but also the definition of an active farmer, greening measures and measures promoting rural development. The Commissioner's Office was happy to hear our thoughts on these issues, as there are still many regulations ahead that will determine how the EU Agricultural Policy will be practically implemented. When parting, we reminded once again that Baltic farmers are not going to give up, and we hope that these difficult negotiations will be put to an end in the coming year!"

It has already been reported that the "Farmers' Parliament", together with representatives of other Latvian and Baltic farmer organizations, have expressed their rejection of the proposals prepared by the European Union on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy for 2014-2020, which envisage that farmers from the new EU member states, including Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, would continue to receive the lowest direct payments in 2020. The Baltic farmer organizations have defined a common position that the amount of direct payments in all European Union member states should be similar - no less than 801% of the EU average support amount.

The activities are implemented within the framework of the National Rural Network event "Sectoral Expert Reports".