Hungary could lose less in EU agricultural funding

Hungary can not accept a cut bigger than that justified by the Brexit, so keeping CAP funding at the current EU27 level is a minimum requirement,

agriculture state secretary Zsolt Feldmann said after the Agrifish committee's meeting in Luxembourg.

In addition to Hungary and other CEE member states, Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Ireland, Luxemburg, Portugal and Spain have also supported the joint proposal to keep the CAP budget at its current EU27 level.

The current EUR 382 billion CAP budget cannot be realistically maintained once the UK, one of the largest net contributors, leaves the EU, but Hungary can only accept cuts up to a level justified by the Brexit,

Feldmann stressed.

As reported earlier, the EC proposed to cut Hungary's CAP funding by 17% in the 2021-2027 budget period, with regional development funds set to decrease by as much as 26%.

This is unacceptable while proposed regulatory changes would increase the burdens of farmers, Feldmann said, adding that we cannot ask more from farmers while giving them less.

The EU's next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) will be decided by the heads of member states, but Monday's statement by the 20 agriculture ministers is an important political message for future talks, especially as their numbers include both old and new member states and several net contributors as well.

This article is part of the work programme titled "The impacts of EU cohesion policy in Hungary - Present and Future" which is carried out by Net Média Zrt., the publisher of Portfolio.hu, between 1st April 2019 and 31st March 2020 with European Union financing. The views in this article solely reflect the opinions of the author. The European Commission as the funding entity does not take any responsibility for the use of information presented in this article.