European Commission, listen to farmers!

"European farmers are being hit from all sides. The economic hardships due to the Russian war in Ukraine are cutting farmers’ incomes, and the European Commission’s greening plans are threatening their future. There is an urgent need to listen to and respect our farmers when shaping EU policies. The EPP Group is calling for a debate at the plenary session of the European Parliament next week”, said Manfred Weber MEP, Chairman of the EPP Group.

"The support of rural communities and our farmers in particular are crucial to succeed in the environmental and climate challenges we are facing. This means the European Commission should listen to them and show the respect they deserve for the crucial work they do for all Europeans. Instead of adding more bureaucracy and restrictions, we expect the Commission to work on a hopeful future perspective for farmers around Europe", Weber underlined.

“The Commission’s green deal proposals are cutting production and making investments insecure. Unsustainable cuts of plant protection products without realistic alternatives means a significant cut of the yields . Nature restoration on the other hand means a cut of the land area used for farming. Together, they will make a big hole in the already very thin farmers’ budgets, will endanger availability of European food and will increase inflation”, added Herbert Dorfmann MEP, the EPP Group Spokesman in Parliament's Agriculture Committee.

“These two proposals are lacking a proper economic impact assessment and their combination can be poisonous for the future of our farming”, concluded Dorfmann.