Farmers fear EU CAP strategic plans will turn Latvia into a nature reserve

RIGA - Latvia will be turned into a nature reserve if the European Union (EU) goes ahead with the strategic plans of its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Latvian Council for Cooperation of Agriculturalist Organizations (LOSP) believes. 

LOSP representatives told LETA that despite Latvia's active involvement in drafting the strategic plans, the document has been prepared rather superficially, without considering each particular country's situation, as a result of which the recommendations provided to Latvia are incomprehensible and discriminatory. 

LOSP notes that the European Commission has defined cutting greenhouse gases and CO2 emissions from agricultural activity as one of the key issues. The necessity to slash emissions is being emphasized as essential for improving the quality of the environment and various solutions are being proposed to achieve this goal, including promoting biodiversity, scaling down on plant health products, greening and other measures intended to improve the quality of the environment. 

Representatives of the farmers' organizations underlined that EU member states must take care of the environment but these activities must be based on solidarity. Moreover, according to LOSP, Latvia is already one of the greenest members of the EU and should not be obliged to implement the same measures as countries whose environment is more polluted. 

LOSP board chairman Edgars Treibergs said that notwithstanding various EU documents, Latvian farmers are doing their business wisely and protecting the environment. 

"Latvia should not accept EU recommendations blindly. Instead, we should insist on equal conditions in order to promote our farmers' competitiveness in the single EU market," Treibergs said.