.png)
Zagreb - Agriculture is invaluable for national security and economic development, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković said on Monday, adding that the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) contributes to development but that one should take account of member states' specificities.
He was speaking at an inter-parliamentary conference on the contribution of national parliaments to the enhancement of the CAP, organised at the initiative of Marijana Petir, chair of the parliamentary Agriculture Committee, on the occasion of Croatia's ten years in the EU.
In ten years of membership, the Croatian parliament has seen the value of inter-parliamentary cooperation and political dialogue as instruments for impacting European decision making, Jandroković said.
He said he was glad the conference drew 23 delegations of EU member states and states from the Alpine-Adriatic-Danube community as well as representatives of the European Parliament and the European Commission.
The European framework and the CAP provide an opportunity for agriculture to continue to develop, Jandroković said. "That's why we will continue to respect the principle of subsidiarity in the legislative process. Thereby we make sure that the common EU goals are applied by acknowledging national specificities and priorities at the same time."
Croatian farmers have been considerably helped by the grants available as part of European funds, Jandroković said.
New steps forward are necessary, so it is encouraging that Croatia has access to €3.38 billion until 2027 as part of the national strategic plan, he added.
Petir: CAP is insufficiently adjusted to member states' possibilities and needs
Petir said national parliaments' competent committees and farmers should be more involved in creating the CAP and the measures and programmes being financed.
The new CAP ensures greater flexibility to member states, thereby recognising their specificities, and ensures financing, but it is still insufficiently adjusted to their possibilities and needs, she said.
Given also the environmental demands of the European Green Deal, the law on sustainable pesticide use and the Nature Restoration Law, Croatian farmers are concerned since nearly 50% of Croatian territory is included in the ecological network and they already use less pesticides and artificial fertilisers than the EU average, Petir said.
Commissioner calls for sharing responsibility for the implementation of CAP
The European Union's Agriculture Commissioner, Janusz Wojciechowski, who addressed the conference via video link, said that the member states share the responsibility for the implementation of the CAP.
He described today's conference in Zagreb as an important and timely event that created opportunities for the exchange of experiences and good practice examples and for taking stock of what has been done so for and what can be amended in the future.
Croatian Agriculture Minister Marija Vučković said that ten difficult years were now behind local farmers who were exposed to strong competition, market disruptions, climate change, the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
They managed to demonstrate resilience, and the results at the end of 2022 show that the productivity of Croatia's agricultural sector increased by 62%, while the value of the production rose by 29%, which was a higher rate than prices, she said.
The minister praised agricultural businesses for coping well with the developments and for taking advantage of EU funds.
Investments, introduction of new agri-environmental practices, and diversification of rural areas have yielded positive effects, said Vučković.
The chairman of the EP Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Norbert Lins, said that the process of reforming the CAP is proof of the strength of European cooperation.
He believes that it is still too early to consider a new CAP after 2027 and that first it is necessary to analyse and take stock of the effects of the current CAP.
The director-general of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, Wolfgang Burtscher, agreed that national parliaments play a key role in representing the interests of their agricultural communities.