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As we reported last week, the chairman of the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee, Norbert Lins (EPP, DE) and most of the committee's political groups sent a letter to Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski, asking the European Commission to take “immediate initiatives aimed to alleviate the negative situation and anticipate serious disturbances in the pig meat sector”.
In response to this request, the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, wanted to explain why the Commission is opposed and answered that, despite the fact that 13 Member States have requested market measures, 7 Member States, including the main producing countries, such as Germany, Spain, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland, which represent almost two-thirds of EU pig production, have not requested market measures and that "this is a clear signal and a signal I cannot ignore."
Wojciechowski advocated that state aid is an effective tool and gave examples such as the current aid package launched last week by France totaling 270 million euros and that of Poland, which has announced a state aid package of 88 million euros.
The Commissioner also highlighted that 13 Member States have requested Article 219 - measures against market disturbances but stressed that an urgent and rapid measure in 2022 would have to be realistically financed by mobilizing part of the agricultural crisis reserve of 497.3 million euros, subject to approval by the European Parliament and the Council. Consequently, this amount could not be reimbursed to farmers in 2023. In the end, it will be the farmers who finance the measure. He also wondered to whom the aid should be directed, to the Member States with the most pigs or to the Member States with the most producers? In addition, he noted that the co-legislators have to agree to use the reserve and with 7 member states against using it, they could have a blocking minority in the Council. Also, 497.3 million euros for 1.5 million pig producers in the EU is not much compared to what France and Poland are offering.
The Commissioner also informed that he will soon be leading a delegation to Singapore and Vietnam with the precise objective of finding new markets for European agricultural products, including pork.
On the other hand, the Commissioner recalled that, in relation to the high prices of inputs and energy, which are closely related to this issue, recently the Commission adopted a communication on how to address the increase in energy prices and if both the income of farmers and consumer food prices move the wrong direction due to the evolution of input prices, the EU must give a political response to this situation.
February 7, 2022/ 333 Staff with information from the European Commission.
