Agriculture minister calls for extraordinary EU aid to farmers
Hungarian farmers need extraordinary subsidies from the European Union due to the war in Ukraine and the EU's sanctions, so that they can ensure safe food supplies, Agriculture Minister Istvan Nagy said in a statement on Monday.
Speaking after a meeting of his European counterparts in Brussels, Nagy said most of them had asked the European Council to activate a reserve fund of 450 million euros set up for agricultural emergencies.
The minister said soaring energy prices had increased the cost of food production, which could no longer be covered even by higher producer prices. He insisted that “agriculture had nothing to do with causes of the crisis” and “farmers cannot be expected to manage the situation by themselves, left without assistance”.
Nagy said he hoped the commission “would hear the request of most member states” and make a proposal to activate the reserve fund in the first months of 2023.
