At the next meeting of the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) on Monday 14 March, EU Member States will discuss with the European Commission what measures should be taken to help farmers, who are struggling due in part to the effects of the war in Ukraine triggered by Russia.
The Commission is considering measures to help European farmers, including a private storage programme for pig meat. A meeting of the new European Pig Meat Think Tank will take place on Thursday 10 March.
Crisis reserve. The Commission is also assessing the possibility of releasing the financial reserve for agricultural crises, which has a budget of around €500 million. However, this reserve has never been used, as it is built up by reducing the amount of direct aid to farmers. The Commission is said to be prepared to adopt exceptional measures (in case of market disturbances) under the Common Market Organisation (CMO) Regulation and to use the crisis reserve to finance them.
All these measures had been mentioned and discussed at the 7 March SCA (see EUROPE 12905/4), but nothing has been adopted or decided at this stage, explains a European source.
EU Agriculture Ministers will meet on 21 March to take, if necessary, decisions on measures for farmers. The conflict affects the grain, feed, livestock (pigs, poultry) and fertiliser sectors.
Set-aside land. The idea of the French Presidency of the EU Council to use set-aside land for protein crop production was supported by several EU countries, including Austria, Germany, Poland (which wanted set-aside land to be exempted from greening rules), Finland and Belgium. The Commission has not yet presented such a proposal. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)