Support to Slovenia, Greece after floods casts doubt on EU agriculture reserve – EURACTIV.com

The European Commission is considering giving fresh funds from the EU’s agricultural reserve to Slovenia and Greece after the disastrous extreme weather events there, but other EU countries are increasingly questioning the way the fund is being used.

Greece and Slovenia were hit with severe floods in recent weeks, which, among many other damages, also affected the agriculture sector.

“The damages in Slovenia are extremely high,” Slovenian Agriculture Minister Irena Šinko told her colleagues during a meeting of agriculture ministers in Brussels on Monday (18 September).

“Greece, due to its geographic position, finds itself at the eye of the storm of the impact of climate change,” added her Greek counterpart, Eleutherios Agkenakes, whose country also suffered from severe wildfires this summer.

Against this backdrop, the Commission now “stands ready to consider an agricultural exceptional measure to be founded by the agricultural reserve,” Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said during the meeting.

“The most important thing now is to discuss what are the possible tools to support the farmers affected by this catastrophic event in both countries,” he added.

Apart from the reserve money, these tools could also include unused funds from the countries’ rural development programmes within the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the EU’s programme of massive agricultural subsidies, according to the Commissioner.

Crisis reserve overused?

Via the agricultural reserve, a certain amount of funds within the CAP is set aside each year to be used in case of market disturbances. However, the funds have already been completely used up for 2023, and any extra money would thus have to come from the 2024 budget.

Greece and Slovenia already benefitted from the disbursement of crisis reserve funds earlier this year, but more funds are needed, “given the extent of the damages”,  Wojciechowski stressed.

While both Greece and Slovenia welcomed the idea of tapping into the 2024 reserve, not everybody was convinced this was the right thing to do.

“The agricultural reserve is not equipped to deal with crises of this magnitude,” Lithuanian vice-minister Vytenis Tomkus warned.

Latvia’s Mārtiņš Kreitus stressed for his part that “the principles and methodology for granting exceptional financial support from the agricultural reserve must be transparent, evidence-based, negotiated, and accepted between member states.”

Earlier this year, a number of member states slammed the Commission for its opaque decision-making around the disbursement of the crisis reserve.

EU countries question Commission’s ‘opaque’ €430m boost to farmers

As the European Commission announced €330 million in funds – plus the approval of the first round of €100 million – for EU farmers to help with the drought and the impacts of the Ukraine war, member states have raised concerns about the ‘opaque’ decision process.

Meanwhile, Irish minister Charlie McConalogue pointed out that extreme weather events are becoming increasingly frequent and that the EU needs to consider how to manage this – including the question of whether the agricultural reserve is the right instrument for such situations.

This issue was also acknowledged by Commissioner Wojciechowski, who stressed that “we need to reflect together and reflect carefully on how we use the available tools, including the agricultural reserve, to make sure they are fit for purpose”.

“At the moment, we are using the reserve for other purposes than when we established it because actually, the reserve was created in order to help farmers go through market crises,” he acknowledged during a press conference after the meeting.

Severe damages

Meanwhile, the Greek and Slovenian ministers used the occasion to explain the damage the floods wrought on the farming sector.

“Greek society, economy and agricultural production have been badly affected and there is a visible risk of shortage of food shortages in the food chain,” Greece’s Agkenakes stressed.

Agricultural production in the affected areas in the affected areas in the Thessaly region accounts for 5.5% of the country’s GDP, he added.

Slovenia’s Šinko said the damages impacted “[agricultural] land, facilities, and machinery”, explaining that the supply of seeds and animal feed, as well as the food processing industry, were also affected.

“The total estimated damage in agriculture is about €145 million,” she added.

[Edited by Gerardo Fortuna/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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