Agriculture Minister: Agriculture council must ‘show the way’ for post-2027 policy

Speaking after a meeting of agriculture ministers, Istvan Nagy said the Hungarian presidency saw “putting the interests of farmers front and centre again” as a top priority.

The priority of the presidency’s agriculture policy was to create a competitive, crisis-proof, sustainable, farmer-friendly and knowledge-based agriculture, he said. Most member states supported the notion that the EC should prioritise the agricultural and forestry sector, he added.

Nagy said he had talked with representatives of the farmers’ lobbyist Copa-Corega, and they also expressed support for the Hungarian presidency’s priorities.

Rural areas must be boosted and demographic challenges tackled, he said, noting that several member states proposed that the EC should extend advances on agricultural funding to this year.

Hungary also supports a French proposal calling for a committee to be set up to review “the social acceptance and debate over lab-grown meat, and the possible effects of their introduction to the EU”.

Regarding trade policy, Nagy said agriculture “shouldn’t pay the price of geopolitical tensions and debates in other sectors”. The council of agriculture ministers will carefully monitor the trade partnership between the EU and Ukraine, especially the implementation of the autonomous trade measure, he said.

On the matter of knowledge-based agriculture, Nagy said the Hungarian presidency is working to launch a research programme according to the interests of central and eastern Europe, focusing on healthy soil, sweetwater and food supply systems and support for creating local value-added, he said.

Besides member states, the Western Balkans, Ukraine and Moldova should also take part of the dialogue on eastern Europe, as those membership candidates could contribute to European sovereignty and food security, he said.