Farmers in all EU member countries should receive equal direct payments - agricultural organizations

RIGA - Farmers in all European Union member countries should receive equal direct payments, representatives of several farmers' organizations told LETA.

Farmers Saeima's foreign policy expert Valters Zelcs explained to LETA that EU member countries had not been able to agree on equalization of direct payments for the last 20 years. It is also currently unclear what the EU multiannual budget will be for the next period, including what funds will be allocated to European farmers.

In order to ensure fair direct payments for the Baltic countries, the increase in funding for the Baltic countries would have to be covered by funds from countries that have long received support well above the EU average.

Latvia, like Lithuania and Estonia, is significantly behind the average direct payments in the EU, and currently these three countries receive the lowest direct payments. Latvia received around 25 percent of the EU average when it joined the EU, around 50 percent in 2007, and in 2027 Latvia will receive around 77 percent of the average direct payments in the EU, said Zelcs. Although this is a significant increase, Latvia is falling further behind other EU member countries in terms of competitiveness every year.

Ensuring fair direct payments between EU countries is very important as all countries have to meet the same production standards as well as environmental and climate requirements, but the support member countries receive for meeting these requirements varies considerably.

Martins Cimermanis, chairman of the board at Latvian Rural Advisory and Training Center, told LETA that the discussion on equalization of direct payments was essentially a discussion on the European budget. An agreement was almost reached, but it lacked just a few votes.

The need to agree on equalization of direct payments is based on promises made to the Baltic States upon their accession and to the countries that have relatively recently joined the EU, said Cimermanis.

Cimermanis said that countries which would see their direct payments reduced were the most likely to oppose this, adding that it could be difficult for these countries to explain to farmers why they should receive lower payments in the future.

However, a very significant change is expected in seven years' time as Ukraine could join the EU after the war is over. The current system of direct payments will not work if Ukraine joins the EU, as the system would be very costly. Conditions for direct payments must be made the same for all EU member countries, said Cimermanis.

Guntis Gutmanis, chairman of the board at the Latvian Agricultural Organization Cooperation Council, told LETA that every year Latvia tried to achieve equal direct payments for all EU member countries, but every year it continued to receive some of the lowest direct payments in Europe.

A country needs to be able to balance out all the issues that concern it, including cohesion, local governments, regions, roads and other issues of national importance, said Gutmanis. However, direct payments should be the same for all member countries as they form a single market under the same conditions, in which there should be no discriminatory treatment of any individual country.

For Latvia to be able to compete on the single market, conditions must be the same at all levels, Gutmanis stressed.

The EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council at a meeting on October 21 failed to reach agreement on the Common Agricultural Policy after 2027.