The struggle of Baltic farmers for equal EU funding for agriculture continues

On the morning of February 20 The Farmers' Parliament, together with other Latvian and Baltic farmers' non-governmental organizations, gathered in a joint protest to express their dissatisfaction with the injustice in the context of direct payments.

Currently, we do not see any real equalization of direct payments, and even more so – we see a significant reduction in rural development funding, which actually puts a stop to the dream of prosperous and populated rural areas in Latvia. The current offer of the European Commission to Latvian farmers and rural residents is categorically unacceptable, we also expressed this in person to Krišjānis Kariņš, Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Ratas and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausēdas – we are pleased that all heads of state expressed their readiness to correct this injustice. We also emphasized that the new green initiatives that Europe has agreed on cannot be implemented without adequate funding.

Maira Dzelzkalēja-Burmistre, Deputy Chairwoman of the Board of the Association “Farmers' Council”: “Currently, European farmers are really “backed into a corner” - increasing environmental requirements, an increasingly open market for third world countries and a smaller agricultural support budget. Therefore, Baltic farmers have to look for ways to make Europe's internal inequality heard. It is difficult for politicians to look us in the eye, realizing that our farmers are trying to survive in the common market only with 60% support and higher average production costs in the EU. Therefore, in order to make politicians and our competitors in other countries feel uncomfortable, we were in Brussels again.”

Agita Hauka, member of the board of the Cooperation Council of Farmers' Organizations: "It is a great satisfaction that farmers in the Baltic States were able to organize this kind of protest action, in which we unitedly expressed our opinion. Our protest action was also highly appreciated by the press, so I believe that it is a great effort that will yield results in the future."

Kaspars Melnis, Executive Director of the Association of Agricultural Statutory Societies: “There are different forms of communication, if we are not heard in official negotiations, then we have no choice but to express our opinion in this way. There is no other way than to end this unequal situation between EU member states. As farmers, we should primarily think about production, but increasingly we have to fight for our rights, because it is not fair that Latvian farmers have to meet the same EU requirements as everyone else, only the financing for each country is completely different. Latvia and the Baltic States are still in the role of stepchildren in this situation, as second-class farmers, therefore, as far as possible, we as farmers, our officials and the Baltic States must be united, because only together can we achieve results.”

It should be noted that immediately after the protest, representatives of Baltic farmers' organizations went to meet with Christiane Kirketerp de Viron, a representative of the office of the European Commission's Commissioner for Budget and Administration, Johannes Hahn, with whom they discussed the possibility of changing the methodology for calculating support for the Baltic states, as well as the possible redistribution of money in the Croatian presidency's proposal.