Hungary believes the European Union’s common agricultural policy should focus on farmers, Istvan Nagy, the agriculture minister, said after an informal meeting with his EU counterparts in Budapest on Tuesday.
Nagy said the task before EU agriculture ministers was to reach a consensus on the direction of the bloc’s agricultural policy beyond 2027. He said the timing of the Hungarian EU presidency was “especially important” given that the new European Commission has not yet taken up office, but ministers would have to convince the new body of the goals to be pursued.
The current period provides an opportunity to outline proposals and expectations, and Budapest “can be considered the first stop in formulating a common position”, the minister said.
He said the ministers had agreed on the raison d’etre of an independent CAP, as it will be critical for food security and the development of agriculture. He added, at the same time, that changes to the policy were unavoidable, arguing that the current system was “too complicated and too bureaucratic”.
The strategic plans on a modified CAP “must actually be strategic”, he said, adding that its contents should be streamlined and the opportunities for changing it made easier.
Nagy said most ministers had also agreed on the need to expand risk prevention and risk management tools as well as the need to strengthen agricultural insurance to offset market crisis situations and natural disasters.
He said it was not producers who should be blamed for climate change, but its harmful effects impacted them, too. All EU member states face the consequences of too much or too little rain, he said, adding that producers could help in the fight against climate change if they are made to have an interest in the success of the green transition and a balance between their obligations and competitiveness aspects can be found.
