The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Environment of the Government of Aragon, Joaquín Olona, regretted this Thursday the “political approach” of the new CAP “adopted by the Ministry and supported by a majority of autonomous communities”, which has been “seen for sentence “.
Olona has shown her “total disagreement” since she “does not defend the professional and family farming model” that this territory proposed. He has made this statement in statements to the media on the occasion of his participation in the Sectorial Conference on Agriculture that has been held online.
In it, the minister of the branch, Luis Planas, has presented to the autonomous communities the National Strategic Plan for the reform of the CAP in Spain, whose general approach has been defined in this meeting, although there are “many details” of character. technical “, has pointed Olona.
Likewise, he has indicated that he has defended “until the last moment” the Aragonese position and has shown his “total disagreement” with the agreement reached because “he does not bet enough on the family and professional agrarian model” since they maintain historical rights, with which that the “anomalies” of the aid system persist.
The counselor has highlighted that the maintenance of historical rights will make those who do not have livestock “continue to collect, while if those who do have, they will receive insufficient income”, or that those who no longer carry out any agricultural activity “continue receiving aid “, while the young people who join” have difficulties or are even left out of payments. “
In addition, he pointed out that this criterion will make it difficult “for territorial differences to be resolved with the degree of satisfaction that we would have liked.”
Insufficient changes
Olona has valued that the new PAC has an “income aid” and that a “redistribution” is going to take place as issues in which the Ministry “has been sensitive to what was raised from Aragon”, although it is about progress “very insufficient”.
The counselor has insisted on his opposition to the National Strategic Plan for the reform of the CAP, which he has considered “not very ambitious”, due to its “insufficiency” in supporting the “professional and family agrarian model” of which he said “it is not enough to a rhetorical defense, it must be translated into facts “and has affirmed that the political decisions that have just been taken are not what our professional farmers need and deserve.”
In his speech at the Sectoral Conference, the counselor referred to the limitations posed by “the slowing down of the convergence process, the scant reduction in the number of agronomic regions, the insufficient increase attributed to payments per hectare in less productive areas, as well as the aid associated with extensive sheep, as a particularly critical sector “.
Likewise, he has described as “undemanding” the definition of active farmer “as a beneficiary of direct payments” and does not believe that professional farmers with greater income difficulties “will benefit from the application of redistributive aid.”
In relation to eco-schemes, Olona has made clear “the need to improve the environmental integration of agriculture and livestock” and has recognized “the effort that is being made to facilitate access to this tool for farmers.” He has also received positively that they have “totally” disassociated themselves from the system of individual rights and historical references.
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Olona has shown her concern “for the difficulties that, for its own implementation and development, may derive from the insufficient commitment of the National Strategic Plan for the professionalism that we defend from Aragon.”
For this reason, it has asked “to speed up the technical margins that still exist in the definitive closure of the Plan, for its approval and subsequent application.”
In his opinion, it is “very premature” to detail the consequences of the approved plan, but he has advanced that at the end of next week he will present “an estimated evaluation” of the impact that the adopted agreements “are going to have on Aragon.”
