Latvian farmers receive support from European Parliament heavyweights

On Thursday, 18 September, a conference “The Baltic Challenge in the EU Common Agricultural Policy” was held at the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels. The conference was organised by the office of MEP Sandra Kalniete, together with Lithuanian MEP Radvilas Morkunaitis-Mikulenienė, Estonian MEP Tunni Kelam and the support of Latvian farmers. The conference, which featured such influential EP officials as the Chair of the EP Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development Paolo De Castro (Italy), MEPs Albert Dess (Germany) and Mairead McGuinness (Ireland), was chaired by Maira Dzelzkalėja, Deputy Chair of the Farmers’ Parliament.

In her opening speech, MEP S. Kalniete stated: “This conference is taking place at the right time, at a time when the EP Committee on Agriculture is launching a debate on what the European agricultural policy should be like in the next seven years. It is only fair that Baltic farmers also want to work in conditions of fair competition, but the current CAP denies us this. Our agricultural production costs do not differ significantly from other EU Member States – the prices of fuel and machinery are the same. The only difference is the costs of labor, but these are also leveling out. Increasingly, Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian farmers are asking themselves why they should comply with all the same requirements that are binding on farmers in Western Europe, if they receive only a quarter of the direct payments that farmers in other countries receive? Perhaps fairness would mean that they only have to comply with a quarter of all the requirements?” Kalniete also emphasized that equalizing direct payments for the Baltic countries is not just an economic issue, it is also a matter of historical justice, and today we must not allow the influence of the Iron Curtain, which is proposed by the original CAP reform proposal, to continue 35 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The representative of the farmers' organizations for lobbying work in the EU, M. Dzelzkalės, said at the conference: "We - Baltic farmers - are also voters, and we expect that our elected MEPs will represent our interests, fight for equal direct payments and correct the mistakes that were made when joining the EU. We expect that already in this discussion we will arrive at a fairer, simpler and more effective CAP. We highly appreciate the support that we have received so far from S. Kalniete and MEPs from other countries, both those who are here in the hall and others whom we have met in our lobbying activities throughout this year." After the event, M. Dzelzkalēja pointed out that, in her opinion, it happened at exactly the right time – at a time when MEPs have returned from vacation and have begun the final stage of work on the CAP reform, Baltic farmers were once again able to remind themselves of themselves, also providing a high-quality analytical assessment, and overturn myths with facts. The academic justification for the need to urgently change the unfair CAP for the Baltic countries was provided by Guna Salputra, a researcher at the Latvian Institute of Agrarian Economics, and Ants Hannes Vīra, a researcher at the Estonian Institute of Economics and Social Sciences.

Irish MEP M. McGuinness, who has also visited Latvia before, expressed the opinion that she understands the problems of Baltic agriculture, but she, like other MEPs, must also take into account the opinion of farmers in her country. McGuinness also pointed out that it is still too early to judge the outcome of the EU direct payments issue, and the EP is only one of the decision-makers. German MEP A. Dess, who has visited Latvia twice, expressed his enthusiastic support for Baltic farmers, noting that this is a question of such pan-European values as solidarity and justice.

Latvia was also represented at the conference by Armands Krauze, a member of the European Economic and Social Committee and a member of the board of the Cooperation Council of Farmers' Organisations: "At the event, several influential people publicly announced good news to Latvian farmers. A. Dess said that the payment for the Baltic countries should be raised to the Romanian level, which is more than 200 EUR/ha, while P. De Castro mentioned that the latest parliamentary proposal will definitely be improved. These statements show the positive mood in the parliament, but at the same time they make it necessary to be cautious and not to start celebrating the victory too quickly, as the very reserved speeches of other MEPs should also be taken into account.

MEPs also understand that Latvia is a green and environmentally friendly country and that we do not need the “greening” measures proposed by the European Commission to the same extent as some old EU member states, because it would be disproportionate in Latvia to leave some areas uncultivated if there are already forests, natural meadows and other ecologically valuable territories next to agricultural land. A. Dess pointed out that such issues should be considered at the member state level, looking at specific measures in the region and on specific farms.”

At the end of the conference, the Chair of the EP Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Paolo De Castro, addressed the audience, stressing that the committee currently faces a significant task – to examine almost eight thousand proposals submitted by MEPs, but that they are determined to complete this work. Castro acknowledged that it will be a great challenge to balance so many and different opinions of EU member states in the CAP reform, while the situation is also complicated by the uncertainty surrounding the EU Multiannual Budget, which the heads of state will only start to decide on at the extraordinary EU Council announced in the second half of November, but the Committee Chair expressed confidence that the EP proposal will be improved.

Mindaugas Maciulevicius of the Lithuanian Agricultural Cooperative "Lietuvas Saimničias Kvaliteta" and the Lithuanian Cooperative Association "Koperacijos Kelias" also addressed the event.