The Executive Director of Ursula Von Der Leyen Community will put its offer on the table this month General budgets for the period 2028-2034. The debates will be heavy, but it can already be expected that they will consider accounts with radical changes in relation to previous formulations. To such an extent that one of the pillars of European integration, the total agrarian policy (PAC), risks reducing to 20% of its resources in order to release funds for the growing defensive needs of the trade union.
This is already expected in the elections. PAC currently mobilizes 386,000 million euros, which implies that capital distracted in the interests of the greatest military payment This will be more than 77,000 million.
The preamble of what could happen, and this made the alarm jumped, it was marked by the intention of Brussels to unite under the same game of resources that have so far been classified as agricultural funds and rally funds, two games that, which, in Until now, they were scrupulously different.
The means of cohesion are a giant item – until up to one third of the general budget of the community is represented, in which the PAC will be very diluted, therefore This will lose fame (and resources).
In order to support this modification, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Lane said that the current budget “was developed for the world that was no longer there, the world of 2020.” He referred to geopolitical turbulence, which called on the block to launch a strategy for turning Europe with which it is intended Mobilize 800,000 million euros in state and private capitalThe field is a plan that will be supplemented with an additional item that will include European accounts. Given the vision of a more flexible budget, to the detriment of agriculture, the sector requires more support for the general budget for this area, which corresponds to an increase in inflation and demonstrated its concern about the idea of combining assistance to its activities with cohesion funds.
The agricultural lobby even gains muscles and in early May received support for the European parliament to increase the subject of funds that are intended for general agrarian policy. Although a proposal He continued 317 votes for206 against and 123 abstinations, the truth is that it should be represented by the European Commission in order to take this into account.
Moreover, despite the claims of Eurocamara, there are already signs that Brussels does not see them with good eyes. Agricultural commissioner Christoph Hansen was looking for Lower expectations are already several times Since he believes that little should be done to increase the contribution to farmers at a time when the EU intends to increase defense costs.
Farmers also reject that the budget proposal of Brussels offers “the national plan of the state -member, which, as in terms of restoration of pandemia, allows you to pay funds as soon as certain goals are consistent between the member state and the European Commission. Seeing funding.
“We need stronger European interventions, a commissar, and not new national plans managed by the capitals, and exclude regional agencies,” said the socialist Europeanist Stefano Bonachchini before the budget commissar Peter Serafin. Also not an enthusiast of the EU court, who believes that budgets can lead to a decrease in transparency And improper use of money.
The protests began
The claim was submitted in Madrid in the form of protests in the European Commission. Last May, farmers demonstrated in favor of a more just public budget. “It is time to leave losses in PAC so that the budget is adjusted with inflation, and that farmers and owners of the ranch be details,” said General Secretary of the UPACristóbal Cano, in the statements of the media in mobilization of Madrid.
He Assaji PresidentPedro cheap also transferred his request to Brussels. He did this last week at a meeting in the capital of Belgium with the Commissioner for Agriculture, to whom he explained that it was necessary that PAC support his own budget, again, adapted to inflation and with clearly defined goals.
But not only this, the organization defended that two differentiated structures for European agrarian guarantee fund (Feaga) and for the European Fund Rural development (Feader) and criticized that direct tools are used as tools to achieve climate management goals. He also asked that the package of simplification of agriculture be approved quickly and without amendments to enter into force until the next campaign.
The role of Ukraine
On the other hand, Ukraine since the war broke a new actor in the agrarian grain market. The import of production in this country is unlikely to undermine competition in the only market, and the entry of cereals at lower prices than in the community market.
In this scenario, Asaja also asked to take into account the possible influence of Ukraine adhesion on the EU, both for distortions that it can cause in the market, and for unfair competition, and for loss of assistance in certain regions in favor of Kyiv. His record, in his opinion, should be controlled with the prospect Deep reform in a large financial structure In which effective guarantees appear.
For the part that corresponds to the ministers of agriculture at twenty -seven, this is not that the news fell very well. A joint letter supported by 14 countries, including France, Austria, Ireland, Portugal and Latvia, showed its prospect: “Another essential reform will threaten the necessary stability and predictability of the agricultural sector and food security.” The ministers insist that the PAC should remain “separate, allocated and independent”, with its structure two pillars are untouched.
In May, Greece and Italy, the captain with a refusal of redirecting 386.6 billion packs on a more flexible tool. Brussels proposals for combining cohesion and agricultural funds will “Death of the General Agricultural Policy”He claimed the Minister of Portuguese Agriculture Jose Manuel Fernandez.
A new threat
In the EU there is little vision of this formula as a threat to common resources in the agricultural policy of the community, which was one of the fundamental pillars of the European Union. Thus, it will be more difficult to check this agrarian policy This continues to be a priority for the block.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Luis Planas was also announced in this regard: “We should not choose between guns and oil,” he said in March. “We will continue to fight in the council and parliament (European),” he said. “I hope that the commission will not make a mistake, presenting an offer that does not respond to the main expectations of the sector.”
These expectations inevitably differ in accordance with the country, which is considered, in accordance with the distribution represented by the resources of the general agricultural policy. From this point of view, France is the first country of beneficiaries of funds formulated under this section, with 17.1% of resources; It follows Spain, with 12.5% And later Germany and Italy, with 11.2% and 10.5%, respectively. As for the European Agrarian Fund for the development of rural regions (Feader), France and Italy are at the head of the beneficiaries, with 13.1% and 10.1%, respectively, followed by Germany, with 9.3% and Romania of 8.3%.
The idea that the head of the community was the head of the community was to combine funds and agricultural funds in the same fund for regional and national investment and reform associations. He did not have a big trick, for sure. Thus, the three pillars that will support the community budget, the competitiveness fund, the European global strategy and this conglomerate of funds would be like that.
There are options, in addition to joining agriculture, to increase defense costs. Many votes suggest the need to correct imbalances in military payment so that those who spend less spend more, resorting to their internal resources. Thus, this is collected by a recent study of the economic tank Bruges In the end, this is the most obvious trigger when it comes to restoring the balance of the community unbalanced since the time of Covid.
Resources for expanding financing
The community budget is faced with another handicap and is the expiration of the Pandemia restoration plan. This will be in the accounts on which financing requested to the markets should start paying payments Funds “Next generation” and tied loans. A game that is about 30,000 million a year, the fifth budget of the community or a total of 650,000 million euros.
It is for this position that the idea of increasing the contribution that countries make into the execution of the community seem the least contradictory for some member states, mainly to environmentally friendly They tend to use common resources.
Another formula that will lead to the community budget outside this 1% EU GDP consists in improving the collection created through its own resources. Brussels placed possible provisions in the table to supplement existing mechanisms, such as Carbon adjustment mechanism or CO2 emissions tradingThe field, although the proposal to wrap the issues and advantages of companies has been blocked in the Council since 2023.
