At a debate in Strasbourg on Wednesday 27 November, MEPs broadly welcomed the content and ambitions of the ‘Budapest Declaration’ on the future of European competitiveness (see EUROPE 13521/2). They did, however, call for more commitments on a number of issues.
Farmers and the need to protect them to guarantee their competitiveness were given a great deal of attention during the debate. As a result, many MEPs called on the European Commission to provide better protection for farmers against unfair competition. The issue of trade agreements was raised by several members of various groups, in particular by the French and Polish delegations opposed to the EU/Mercosur agreement.
Secondly, according to the right-wing and far-right groups, farmers should not be overloaded with overly burdensome rules. “It is intolerable that they should be subject to hundreds of controls and rules. We need to put our money where our mouth is. We need to review the legislation”, demanded Veronika Vrecionová (ECR, Czech).
The subject of the administrative and regulatory burden has been widely taken up on the right and in the centre. Germany’s Svenja Hahn (Renew Europe) felt that the ‘Budapest Declaration’ did no more than the bare minimum: “We’ve been talking about reducing bureaucracy for 20 years, but I haven’t heard any proposals. What legislation can we repeal, what proposal can we do without?”
On the left of the Chamber, MEPs tended to focus on the need to reduce energy prices and the importance of staying the course on the green transition. “To achieve this, we need to invest”, insisted Dario Nardella (S&D, Italian). “We were able to issue Eurobonds for defence, so I don’t see why we can’t do the same for our economy and agriculture”, he added. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)