In May 2020, “at my initiative”, the European Commission proposed increasing the budget for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) by €26 billion (from the initially planned €365 billion to €391 billion) and, finally, the July 2020 European Council adopted an increase of €22 billion (from €365 billion to €387 billion), Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said on Thursday 25 July in a preliminary progress report on his 2019-2024 mandate.
For him, this increase in agricultural funding for 2021-2027 compared to the initial 2018 proposal “was a major achievement, with tangible financial benefits for EU farmers”.
The Commissioner welcomed the “effective measures against the crisis of excessive agricultural imports from Ukraine”. The reduction of excessive agricultural imports from Ukraine and the temporary ban (from 2 May to 15 September 2023) on imports of wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower from Ukraine to five border countries “was an important personal achievement”, he said. This ban, introduced despite the initial opposition of as many as 20 EU countries, “has played an effective role in reducing excessive grain imports from Ukraine. This was the first such regional ban in the history of the EU’s common market”, according to the Commissioner.
Finally, he criticises the cuts in funding decided by the Commission for the Community’s policy of promoting EU agricultural products.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/d56 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)