The European Council, the institution that represents member states, has approved the bloc’s agricultural reforms, paving the way for it to become official EU law, but the changes have both opponents and supporters.
Tijs Boelens, is a small organic Belgian farmer and he says the reforms are neither environmentally friendly nor fair.
“It goes against the grain of ecology. It goes against the grain of climate change and it goes against the grain of food security for the future of Europe,” Boelens told Euronews.
“A big farmer in my region receives €250,000 per year. A humble farmer, from a more normal, traditional family, he gets €25,000 per year. We get €2,500 – not even,” he added.
“It doesn’t help younger people who have just set up and come from outside the world of agriculture. It doesn’t help a young person who takes over his parents’ farm either. This new CAP reform is business as usual, it’s making the big ones bigger than before! We are just giving money to the rich,” Boelens said.
But Peter Jahr, a German MEP and one of the leading European lawmakers on CAP, said the changes are “a step in the right direction”.
“The spirit is to give more freedom to the Member States…the farmers have several business tasks [now]: to produce food and be environmentally friend, which could help to save the world.”
The CAP reform will come into force at the beginning of 2023.
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