The Minister Rural Development presented to ERT the plan for subsidies, the new CAP and commented on Eurovision.
In a comprehensive discussion, Margaritis Schinas focused on the big changes underway for the farming world. As a guest on ERTnews’ news show “Weekend at 5”, the Minister of Rural Development outlined the plan for the agricultural subsidies, emphasizing the new way of paying them, which aims at speed and transparency.
Mr. Schinas referred extensively to the challenges of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the financing of biological products, payments to fertilisers, as well as support measures for agricultural activity.
As he said, “We should not forget that Greece was the first country where the populist front won, elections in ’15, but it was also the first country where populism was defeated in ’19. That is, a lot of people are watching Greece as an example of a pendulum swing between populism and reason. And I said, yesterday, at the conference that we Greeks have at least learned, suffered and learned.”
On farm payments, the new minister of rural development said: “We are implementing one of the most emblematic reforms and one of the most difficult reforms ever undertaken in Europe. Because OPEKEPE is now part of the Independent Public Revenue Authority, which has to get accreditation from the European Commission for its new role, but continues to pay while it changes. Let’s say we change and pay, or rather we change so that we can pay. So this change is under way. We presented on Tuesday a detailed payment schedule, so farmers know what to expect. With the new system being changed, 1 billion will be paid by the end of June and 2.3 billion by the end of the year. It changes that we will have the assurance that this money, these European resources that are the property of the Greek people, will go to the real beneficiaries. This old flimsy system, which could be exploited by sophisticated people, by schemes, is now a thing of the past.
All payment claims will be based on checks which will certify the real beneficiary. There will not be this ‘write this is mine’ system as a basis for payment, but it will be reflected in objective, transparent, fast procedures in the DPA,” he added.
Senator Schinas went on to say: “For the first time this transition to the ADA is no longer a goal but an action and like any transition it has a period of implementation. This is exactly where we are now, we are in the middle of the transition. So farmers need to have a little more patience: end of June 1 billion, end of next year 2.3 billion.They will get their money, the real beneficiaries will get it, but they should give the ADA this small margin to get things right.
The failures are a big European problem, which affects us too, and I am waiting with great interest. On 19 May, the Commissioner responsible for agriculture promised me that he would present a great European plan on fertilisers. We are looking forward to it with great interest.”
Organic products
On this subject, Schinas stressed that: “The payment system was the painful story of the Ministry of Rural Development. Organic products was the other. It was a system which mainly in beekeeping and livestock farming produced, let’s call a spade a spade, organic products “monkeys”. That is, they certified products that the consumer paid gold for without having the specifications that they should have. What the audits found was unreal. We should all Greeks should have lived 150 years if we ate that much organic. So we decided to stop the organic programs in livestock and beekeeping. We will hold on to agriculture, where the system works better, until we find a new certification system.
There were operators who certified without certifying the organic origin of the products. In fact, many of them, when our special auditors started to audit them, said on their own accord we are getting out of this market. The criminal assessment is the responsibility of the public prosecutors. I do not want a consumer, a person of good faith, to pay for an organic chicken, say EUR 25, and for it to be a monkey. I cannot do that. So we will set up a new system for organic that will be worth the effort and the money consumers pay.”
Fisheries
Then Schinas referred to fisheries, saying: “In fisheries we have the following picture, we have fisheries which here as in all of Europe, because of high oil, is now very limited. Of course you know that the fishermen have been exempted from fees, they don’t pay fees on oil, but nevertheless the oil has gone through the roof. On the other hand, we have a success story which is Greek fish and aquaculture which is a national champion. Anyone who eats a sea bream, a sea bass in Europe should know that 80% of it is Greek. So we are now trying to help the fishermen. I have announced a €16 million programme this week. We call it the “ESPA of fisheries” which will allow them to take a bit of a breather to make some improvements to the fishing boats, but unless a solution is found for oil, we will continue to have a problem there.
I went to the Keratsini fish market at 4am. It was a unique experience. You are there with the living economy, the sea people, the decent people. What we call Greece waking up early and the people welcomed me with a lot of joy, but also with a lot of impatience to tell me their problems. I also had Kostas Kadis, who is the Commissioner for Fisheries. A very nice and very useful meeting”.
The Common Agricultural Policy
The talk about the future of Common Agricultural Policy from 2028 to 2034 is in full swing in Brussels and I want to assure you that Greece’s voice in this negotiation will be heard loudly and I want to assure the Greek people, farmers, producers, fishermen, that they have nothing to fear from this conversation.
No money will be cut, we will have what we have now and the possibility to go even further, because the discussions will allow agricultural resources in the new period to come from other pockets, so to speak, not only from agricultural pockets. But also, for the country to stand credibly in this negotiation, we need to finish the reform of OPEKEPE. If we tie up the loose ends of the past, we will have gained the credibility capital to fight these important issues.
Finally, he also mentioned Eurovision in response to a question and said: “I saw Eurovision, I was a bit sad, I was even annoyed that the whole country was putting such a big burden on a young kid. I think it was not reasonable what happened in the last few days. You can’t burden a young kid with a national mission to go tear it up, to carry it… We needed to take it easy and I felt like the last few days were like we were all playing in a game that we had to win.”
