The EPP asks the European Commission to support farmers in the EU member states

The European People's Party requested yesterday, through a letter sent to Ursula von der Leyen - the president of the European Commission, the allocation of more funds for farmers, said the European deputy Siegfried Mureşan - vice-president of the EPP - in a post on the official Facebook page.

In that post, Siegfried Mureşan states: "We ask the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, for greater support for farmers in Romania and the European Union, in parallel with the continuation of the aid given to Ukraine. We sent a letter to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in which we ask for the continuation of the support we offer to Ukraine, in parallel with the implementation of better measures regarding the protection of farmers and the agri-food sector in the European Union, including in Romania. In the text of the letter - which we co-signed with the chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber, the chairman of the Parliament's Agriculture Committee, Norbert Lins, and MEP Herbert Dorfmann, the coordinator of the EPP Group for Agriculture - we show that our support for Ukraine is unshakable and non-negotiable. However, support must be provided without affecting EU farmers and food producers. In this context, the liberalization of trade between Ukraine and the European Union without effective measures to protect farmers has affected the European agri-food sector. The redirection of agri-food products, originally intended for third countries, mainly to the EU caused substantial disruptions on European markets. Therefore, we believe that the current situation regarding the liberalization of trade with Ukraine needs to be improved. As such, we expect the European Commission to propose alternative solutions, such as the establishment of quotas beyond which Ukrainian exports should be directed to third countries such as North Africa, markets to which these products were originally intended. This is also useful to avoid that these markets, left without imports from Ukraine, depend only on imports from the European Union or, worse, end up being occupied by the Russian Federation".

The European deputy from the PNL/EPP side points out that the aid offered to Ukraine must be realistic and must not offer a perspective that cannot be respected "and that constitutes a danger for European farmers and for the agri-food sector in the European Union".

The letter sent by the EPP to the head of the European Commission comes in the context in which yesterday Marc Fesneau, the Minister of Agriculture in France, said to the France 2 television station that the Executive in Paris will pressurize this week for the relaxation of EU regulations on the Common Agricultural Policy . The French official's statement comes as farmers in the Hexagon blocked several national roads and stormed the French capital, protests that have prompted the French government to abandon plans to phase out state subsidies for diesel for agriculture, it has promised a reduction in red tape and a relaxation of environmental regulations regarding agricultural crops.