EU agriculture ministers meet as crisis continues, notably in Poland and Czech Republic

In these two countries, farmers’ demands relate in particular to Ukrainian imports and demonstrations continue, as elsewhere in Europe. The 27 are meeting in Brussels this Tuesday March 26 to try to calm the anger.

European agriculture ministers are meeting in Brussels this Tuesday March 26. They are looking into a revision of the CAP (common agricultural policy). Demanded by States in the face of agricultural anger which has been sweeping the continent for two months, these legislative revisions must now be negotiated and formally approved by Member States and MEPs, by the end of April, before the truce preceding the European elections in June. All against the backdrop of new demonstrations in Brussels.

Poland, farmers are the most vulnerable in the European Union when faced with Ukrainian products. They have been blocking the Ukrainian border for several months, but still have no solution. In the Czech Republic, too, farmers have been demonstrating regularly lately. Their demands relate, among other things, to cereals.

Poland: farmers demand price regulation and closure of borders with Ukraine

Polish farmers announced that they would continue to demonstrate. This Tuesday, March 26, they even warned that they were going to block the houses of European deputies who will vote for the green pact. They have been asking the government for months to reject this new European plan, which they consider too restrictive. What comes up every time in the demonstrations is that they are already in a very complicated situation since the start of the war in Ukraine. Europe has decided to remove customs duties for Ukrainian products, and of course to help the Ukrainian economy.

But we are starting to get tired of it in Poland. Farmers are suffering from a drop in prices on certain products such as raspberries, cereals and chicken. Ukrainian exports sometimes end up on the market, causing increasing anger among Polish farmers. They even overturned a wagon transporting grain at the border, and in Warsaw a large demonstration blocked the entire capital demanding a reaction from the government.

There were phases of negotiations to find solutions. The government has put restrictions in place on certain types of products. He also announced that he will help farmers with the first payments of the European recovery plan, which the current government has started to release in Brussels. But all these solutions have not satisfied farmers who are demanding price regulation and a closure of the borders with Ukraine. On this point, the Polish government does not really have the necessary levers to grant their request; it is up to the European Union to do so. And Polish farmers know it. This is why they have regularly blocked the German border in recent weeks.

If they hoped that a movement of European farmers would cancel the Green deal, they saw over the weeks that the protests were increasingly weak. In Poland, we want to stay the course, but until when? With spring coming, many of them know that they will have to return to work in the fields and that they will no longer have the time and means to maintain the strike, which they have been holding since the beginning of the year. They then hope that the meeting scheduled between Poland and Ukraine on Thursday March 28 will be to their advantage.

Czech Republic: the government wants wheat and barley, imported from Ukraine, to be capped

The last demonstration dates back to March 20, without violence, but notably with 200 kg of flour dumped in front of the town hall of a town in central Czechia and farmers who complain in particular about imports of cereals from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.

“The problem is also that cereal stocks are full and the harvest is approaching, which will greatly complicate our lives. The common agricultural policy of the European Union is trying with the Green deal to go green, but this increases our Fresh from production”deplores Jaroslav Michal, a regional manager of the Czech Chamber of Agriculture. The Czech Minister of Agriculture pleaded the cause of grain growers this Tuesday in Brussels by asking that wheat and barley be added to the list of products for which imports from Ukraine are capped.

The context is very particular for the Czech Republic, since the leader of the parliamentary opposition is a key player in the agro-industrial sector. Andrej Babis, the former Prime Minister, is the founder of the Agrofert group, which is one of the country’s main employers and whose numerous activities cover, for example, the production of fertilizers or poultry. The billionaire, president of the ANO party, uses this theme to criticize the government, in an openly populist manner. In a recent video, he even got behind the wheel of a tractor to explain that “ministers drive BMWs and want this tractor to stop being used because it is more than ten years old”. Apparently, the strategy is good, because it is the ANO party which is currently leading all the polls before the European elections.