On Monday 17 October in Luxembourg, almost all EU agriculture ministers protested against the European Commission’s plan to reduce Community co-financing for plant health and veterinary programmes in the Member States.
Austria and Hungary, supported by almost all countries, found unacceptable the Commission’s proposals to reduce the EU cofinancing rate for emergency measures to 40% (from 50 or 75%) for all grant agreements not yet signed, to reduce the co-financing rate for national (annual) veterinary and phytosanitary programmes to 40% for three years, from 2023 to 2025, and to phase out the EU’s co-financing for the bovine tuberculosis programme by 2023 instead of 2024.
“We call on the Commission to enter into a transparent strategic discussion with the Member States on future measures and programmes”, according to a document from Austria and Hungary (https://aeur.eu/f/3n8 ).
The European Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides, noted that certain animal diseases (African swine fever, avian influenza) have placed a very heavy burden on the budget available under the single market. “The budget will not be enough to meet all your demands”, she said. She hoped that alternative financing solutions could be found.
In the meantime, the Commission has proposed, for budgetary reasons, to temporarily reduce (to 40%) the cofinancing rates for phytosanitary and veterinary programmes as well as for emergency measures until 2025, Kyriakides said. She acknowledged that this change will have consequences for the national budgets of EU countries. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)