HPK: The EU’s defense budget must not reduce support for food producers

From the Croatian Chamber of Agriculture on Wednesday highlighted that the EU’s budget for defense and security must not undermine and reduce support for food producers. HPK has, as reported, written to Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, following the statement by European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen regarding the defense package and a letter to EU leaders ahead of the European Council meeting on Thursday. In that letter, she presented a plan for arming Europe called ‘ReArm Europe’.

The proposals in this plan are aimed at how to leverage the financial levers available to help member states quickly and significantly increase spending on defense capabilities. The ‘ReArm Europe’ plan could mobilize nearly €800 billion for a secure and resilient Europe, while continuing to closely cooperate with NATO partners.

HPK emphasizes the critical importance of prioritizing food security.

– In these difficult times, marked by geopolitical tensions and natural disasters, it is crucial that we come together and adopt a coherent, strategic approach to protect our agricultural production – states HPK’s response.

HPK further emphasizes that the EU’s defense and security budget must not undermine and reduce support for food producers, ‘as food is a weapon and an integral part of defense policy’.

– The goals that were developed after the war and economic crisis, which were set by the Treaty of Rome in 1957, included increasing agricultural productivity, ensuring a decent standard of living for the agricultural community, stabilizing markets, guaranteeing the availability of agricultural products, and ensuring a reasonable price level for consumers – stated HPK.

These goals, as they pointed out, remain as relevant today as they were then.

– It is our responsibility to ensure that our citizens have access to nutritious and affordable food, and this is only possible through a well-planned and adequately funded approach to food security at the EU level – said HPK.

They believe that the Republic of Croatia should take various measures to ensure food security in times of crisis or war.

Some of these measures include diversifying supply chains with local food to reduce dependence on imports, building additional storage facilities and creating reserves of essential food items such as grains, oils, and dairy products, ensuring sufficient capacities for food production and processing within the country to meet domestic demand, developing plans with local authorities, civil society organizations, and others for rapid and effective response in case of a crisis, and accelerating innovations that will modernize economies with the help of digitalization and artificial intelligence, as well as through the development of the bioeconomy.

They urge the Prime Minister to pay attention to the current situation and threats that could potentially harm the domestic food sector.

– It is our responsibility to ensure that our citizens have access to nutritious and affordable food, and this is only possible through a well-planned and adequately funded approach to food security at the EU level – they concluded from HPK.