As of: February 27, 2024, 5:09 a.m
By: Franziska Schwarz
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Minister Cem Özdemir supports a new EU agricultural policy.
He wants farmers to be able to earn good money by protecting the climate and species.
Brussels – The voices of the farmers’ protests have not gone unheard.
Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) once again described it as “legitimate”.
However, he expressed criticism of “free riders” who aim for “subversions” or the like.
There have been several disruptions to Green Party events by demonstrators in Germany in the recent past.
Özdemir made the comments on the sidelines of a meeting with his EU colleagues in Brussels and described the current European agricultural policy as “a bureaucratic monster”.
He emphasized the need for farmers to “earn good money” through climate and species protection.
In addition, he believes that dairy farmers should no longer be the “big losers” of EU policy in the future.
Agricultural reform: This is what the EU is proposing
This Monday, the EU agriculture ministers will discuss agricultural reforms.
The EU Commission is proposing new concessions to farmers, primarily these two:
Inspection visits to companies should be almost halved
Under certain circumstances, farmers no longer have to expect penalties for non-compliance with the requirements
EU agricultural policy and farmers' protests: Özdemir wants to fight “bureaucracy monsters” © Harry Nakos/AP/dpa/photothek/Imago/Montage: IPPEN.MEDIA
Green Özdemir after farmers' protests: No multiple controls
These views are not new for Özdemir.
Before the meeting in Brussels, he emphasized on
Deutschlandfunk
that double work at EU and state level should be avoided.
Checks are necessary, but should not lead to multiple checks.
“But working in parallel, working multiple times, having to provide the same data over and over again, rightly annoys the farmers,” said the Green politician.
The controls serve, among other things, to check environmental standards such as animal welfare.
When asked whether these would not be lost through more leniency, Özdemir replied on
Deutschlandfunk
: "There are certainly those who now want to use this to roll back and maintain the status quo."
Such a “roll back” (i.e. a downward trend) should be avoided because the current status quo results in a “catastrophic balance sheet”.
Özdemir complained on Deutschlandfunk that Germany currently has around 40,000 fewer agricultural businesses than in 2010. A few hours later in Brussels, Özdemir formulated his concern as follows: “Field work instead of paper work is the order of the day.” An average farmer spends a quarter of his time at the desk.
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Özdemir: Bureaucracy has led to “catastrophe” in agriculture
Meanwhile, there were massive protests in Brussels.
According to police, demonstrators blocked traffic with around 900 tractors.
No concrete decisions from the agriculture ministers are expected this Monday (February 26th).
(frs with AFP)
The editor Franziska Schwarz wrote this article and then used an AI language model for optimization at her own discretion. All information has been carefully checked. Find out more about our AI principles here.