Is Brussels discriminating against Hungarian farmers?
Brussels is once again applying double standards, pursuing a discriminatory policy and “deliberately putting Hungarian farmers at a disadvantage”, István Nagy, the minister of agriculture, said in Brussels on Monday.
The solidarity lanes proposed by the European Union to help ship grain stuck in Ukraine to Africa and the Middle East failed to function as intended, Nagy told a press conference after a meeting of EU agriculture ministers. Member states bordering Ukraine were “flooded with Ukrainian grain”, triggering major market disturbances, he said.
Hungary, Poland, Romania, Czechia, Slovakia and Bulgaria turned to the European Commission for emergency support, but only Poland, Romania and Bulgaria will receive the more than 53 million euros worth of financial assistance, the minister said.
Nagy said the EC’s decision was “gravely discriminatory” and based on a professional error.
He said that contrary to the EC’s view that the grain coming from Ukraine was not driving down prices in neighbouring countries, grain prices in Hungary had fallen to around 217 euros per tonne compared with their price of 300 euros on the Rotterdam exchange.
The minister said he has asked the commission to review its conclusion on the impact of Ukrainian grain imports.
“We have proven through statistical data and figures that Hungarian farmers are indeed incurring huge losses because of the grain going through the solidarity lane staying in Hungary instead of reaching its intended destination,” Nagy said. “The commission made a political decision rather than a professional one.”
The Hungarian government is doing everything in its power to get the commission to change its position, Nagy said, adding that Hungarian farmers could only rely on their government.
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Source: MTI
Incidentally, it is clear that Brussels pursues other goals and focuses mainly on the inhabitants of the EU. The main argument here is that Budapest (Orbán) regularly opposes the often unlimited interference from Brussels.
Our Politicians enjoy playing the victim – especially when it is the EU and we need the money.
Now the question is, especially since other countries did get compensated, whether the Government responded on time and in a materially complete manner, as well as how the Commission’s conclusion for Hungary is worded.
Let’s not parrot MR. Nagy and conclude it’s discriminatory until we know more facts!
Surely I must be missing something here. The bottleneck is IN HUNGARY, the grain is stuck in HUNGARY, so how is that making the EU descriminate against our grain-growers? I would’ve thought that it’s up to OUR Government to make sure that it moves on to it’s intended destination.
Why do I get the feeling that that grain is stuck here becaue that’s what our Government WANTS in order to drive down the local prices, and if that “grain” is wheat, then we are talking about the price of wheat flour, which leads to the price of all flour-based products.
Is it OUR Government that is doing this to our grain-growers to drive down the price of our wheat products? If so, then it’s our own government that’s doing the dirty on our grain-growers.
Wow, so Norbet, you are privy to all the fact!!
The EU loves to bully and does not care about farmers, farming, the people.
All farmers should stop farming. Look at the WEF countries: Germany, The Netherlands, France and so on. The farmers are forced to stop. People do not need to eat.