V4 farm chambers reject EU plan to use rural subsidies against refugee costs

Budapest (MTI) – The agriculture chambers of the Visegrad Group countries issued a joint statement on Friday rejecting the idea that European Union rural development funding should be used towards financing tasks handling migration.

The statement of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia was signed in Balatonfured, western Hungary, by heads of the four organisations, after the 63th meeting of their agricultural chambers, Balázs Győrffy, head of the Hungarian body, told a press conference.

The participants “firmly opposed” the European Commission’s proposal that the issues of migration and refugees should come under the targets of European Structural and Investment Fund and rural development subsidies.

The representatives of V4 farm chambers said the proposal should be scrapped or made voluntary.

They also addressed the issue of stock stranded on internal EU markets due to the Russian embargo, as well as the EU’s free trade agreements. Győrffy said the agreements would determine the competitiveness of the agricultural economies of V4 countries in the medium and longer term, and could even “be a make-or-break factor of their existence”.

Source: MTI