HPK Supports Protests of Agricultural Colleagues in the EU

The Croatian Agricultural Chamber (HPK) reported on Tuesday that they support the protests of farmers in the EU and that the decision regarding Croatian protests will soon be made by the Management Board of HPK.

They also state that they agree with the majority of the demands of their European colleagues, which are part of the issues faced by Croatian farmers as well.

The decision on whether Croatian farmers will join the protests will be made by the sectoral Committees of HPK, and then it will be discussed at the meeting of the Management Board, which will make the final decision.

The meeting of the Management Board of HPK is expected to be held at the beginning of next week, HPK announced.

– The issue of food sovereignty is a crucial issue in the EU, and it must be here as well because the only things we have are air, water, and land. The land consists of people (farmers) who transform the resources of the land, through plants and animals, into food, and that is the only thing we need every day and for which we all need to fight together – said the president of HPK Mladen Jakopović.

He notes that the demands being discussed at the protests in the EU are something they also agree with. It is, he says, about the problems faced by the entire EU – excessive demands of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), as well as the conclusion of trade agreements that undermine the common EU market and make our production uncompetitive.

HPK emphasizes that the agricultural community is facing enormous challenges and pressures that have only accumulated in recent years.

Economic burdens and bureaucracy are suffocating farmers across the EU, and the effects of climate and geopolitical crises significantly affect farmers, they state, noting that they feel that even more restrictions will be imposed on farmers and more European regulations. This, they say, will have consequences for production, income, and will increase imports.

HPK notes that all members of the European farmers’ association Copa and Cogeca, of which they are a member, emphasize that there is an urgent need to provide short-term responses to the questions of thousands of farmers who have been expressing their dissatisfaction and misunderstanding for several months. This primarily relates to decisions on urgently needed deviations from the conditions of the CAP, eco-programs, and agro-environmental-climate obligations that are linked to it, for the year 2024.

It is also necessary, they say, to adjust the next proposal for Ukrainian autonomous trade measures (ATM) by creating a system that ensures that the destination for all shipments of Ukrainian agricultural products is determined before entering the EU. It is essential to introduce a system that guarantees that Ukrainian products reach that final destination and do not end up on the common EU market.

One of the demands of EU farmers, with which HPK agrees, is to ensure reciprocity in agricultural production standards and equal conditions to ensure fair trade.

European agriculture is the most sustainable model in the world, and farmers and agricultural cooperatives are key to food and energy supply chains and deserve to be recognized as a strategic sector, emphasized HPK, stating that it is important for them to support their EU colleagues and make a decision on how to express their dissatisfaction with the CAP and the decisions of European leaders that are detrimental to Croatian agriculture.