On Thursday, August 16th, at the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), the European Commission (EC) Representation in Latvia and the EC Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development presented the EC’s new proposals for the EU multiannual budget beyond 2028 to farmers, food producers, fishermen, forestry sector NGOs, MoA experts, and others.
As previously reported, immediately after the publication of this proposal, Minister for Agriculture Armands Krauze strongly objected to the EC’s proposals, calling them completely unacceptable, as they threaten Latvia’s agriculture, fisheries, and food production sectors in the near future. The proposals foresee reducing EU support funding for agriculture by one quarter and for fisheries by as much as two thirds compared to the current level. Moreover, the proposal does not include either the equalisation of direct payments or additional support for rural areas in the EU’s eastern border regions.
Minister for Agriculture Armands Krauze: “Together with other Member States, our goal is to increase or at least maintain the level of funding for agriculture and fisheries in the 2028–2034 period, taking into account the difficult economic conditions in the sector and their impact on prices and consumers. We also cannot accept that the EC plans to include—or in fact, conceal—the reduced support for farmers and fishermen in a single plan together with other sectors, leaving agriculture and fisheries in these geopolitically complex times without a clear and protected EU funding framework for one of the most important support measures, which are crucial for ensuring food security and the vitality of rural regions.”
The MoA has already informed that, according to this unacceptable proposal, the EC currently plans to establish a single National and Regional Partnership (NRP) plan and fund for the next multiannual financial period. Within it, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) funding would be included as separate components. Alongside these, the plan and fund would also cover regional cohesion, migration, border management, internal security, and social policy. The main CAP and CFP provisions and financial allocations would be determined within the unified NRP regulation; however, funding would only be earmarked for part of the agricultural, rural development, and fisheries policy objectives. At present, the CAP and CFP, along with their respective implementation funds—the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, and the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund—exist as two separate EU policies, each with its own objectives, funding, legislation, and planning documents.