Agriculture ministry: Post-2028 EU budget must include area-based farm subsidies

Budapest, February 24 (MTI) – Hungary wants both area-based farm subsidies and rural development support to remain as separate items in the post-2028 EU budget period, the parliamentary state secretary of the agriculture ministry said on Monday.

Sándor Farkas told Hungarian journalists after a meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Brussels that the current proposal fails to clearly define or distinguish between the two forms of subsidy in the EU budget.

Hungarian farmers want the subsidies to be separated in the budget, he said. Area-based subsidies entail a predictable, secure future for Hungarian farmers, while rural development support improves opportunities for countryside-dwellers, he added.

Meanwhile, Fazekas said conditions were in place in Hungary for a secure food supply but there were some efficiency shortcomings. Hungary aims to guarantee a safe, predictable food supply for more than 20 million people by 2030 and no later than 2032, he said.