Cyprus is calling for coordinated European Union support to address rising energy and fertiliser costs, Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, Christos Senekis, has said.
"We are asking for coordinated EU support, both for the increased costs related to energy and for the increased costs related to fertilisers," Senekis noted, responding to a CNA question, upon his arrival at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels on 28 September.
He said the meeting would address important issues for the present and future of European agriculture, first of all the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after 2027. Farmers, he noted, face major challenges, including climate change, higher production costs and animal diseases. "Our position is clear. Effectively tackling these challenges requires substantial and adequate support from the European Union," he stressed.
Irish Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon, who chairs the Council as Ireland holds the rotating EU presidency, set out the general framework of the discussions in his own doorstep remarks. Heydon said solidarity with Ukraine has been a central theme of the presidency and will remain so, noting that the Ukrainian minister for agrarian policy and food would take part in today's meeting.
On the post-2027 CAP, he said Council members are clear and united on the need for an adequately funded policy that supports farmers' incomes, their role in producing food and delivering for the environment, and rural resilience. He reiterated his ambition to reach a partial general approach by the October Council meeting, which he said depends on member states' cooperation. "I do believe it's an ambitious target. It is one that we can achieve," he said. "Farmers can't go green if they're in the red financially," Heydon said, adding that farmers have delivered on environmental resilience under previous CAPs.
Ministers will discuss the fertiliser action plan over lunch and give political direction to its longer-term elements, with the aim of building resilience into EU supply chains and easing input costs for farmers. In the afternoon they will examine the impact of drought and severe weather on food production across Europe, including Commission support and how member states are helping one another. Heydon also said it "only ever takes one crisis" to empty the agricultural crisis reserve, making the role of insurance a topical issue that Ministers will discuss.
(Source CNA)
