The European Commission proclaims that it protects farmers. Farmers declare that their Brussels They stab backs, and prepare for “war” emphasizes Politico.

Commission President Ursula von der Layen has revealed Wednesday plans to reduce funding for EU joint agricultural policy from 386.6 billion euros in just 300 billion euros after 2027, as part of a sweeping review of the next long -term budget.

This is a reduction of more than 20% – without even taking into account inflation.

Presenting her budget proposal, von der Layen denied that farmers would lose, and pointed out the funding available to the agricultural communities in other spending programs.

“Georgia will be strengthened. What we have preserved is direct payments to farmers’, said at a press conference. “This is a place that is clearly preserved and safe.”

Left the Commissioner of Georgia Christof Hansen to defend the cuts, against whom he was fighting for months behind closed doors.

“In the money entering the pockets of farmers, there is no cuts,” He insisted when he was pressured to decline in a press conference, arguing that the missing billions are foreseen elsewhere in the budget.

Speaking earlier in front of an angry agriculture committee of the European Parliament, Hansen said that the amount of 300 billion euros is not a ceiling but a minimum threshold, the minimum that EU countries have to spend on agriculture in its next seven -year cycle. The money, he stressed, will be legally delimited and protected so that they are not channeled to other priorities such as defense or competitiveness.

‘No other policy sector has this level of protection’, Hansen insisted on MEPs. “This guarantees stability and planning for farmers.”

‘Welcome to Vonderland’

Farmers are not convinced.

While Hansen was trying to calm the spirits in parliament, hundreds of farmers gathered outside the EU institutions in Brussels, shaking flags and shouting slogans like ‘Welcome to Boderland’ – A personal attack on von der Layen for what they consider to betray the Europe’s agricultural sector.

‘Determine 70 years of European history’, said Massimiliano Giansadi, head of COPA, the powerful EU farm lobby, referring to the origin of the CAP after World War II.

For many of Europe’s farmers, the CAP is not just a subsidy system, it is a inalienable right.

“They want to declare war on farmers. Okay, we’re ready ‘, Add Jiancadi.

This time, there were no tractors, only flags, slogans and a song created by artificial intelligence and talking about rural subsidies, as protesters marched from Parliament to Berlemond, the seat of the Commission.

What is really cutting?

Hansen’s “defense line” is based on a controversial distinction.

He told MEPs that he did not reach the entire current amount of the CAP budget of 386.6 billion euros in the pockets of farmers. From this amount, about 291.1 billion euros are intended for income and sectors, while another 95.5 billion euros are intended for the support of rural development programs.

In fact, most of the funding for rural development continues to end in the pockets of farmers, through investment support, funding for environmentally friendly agriculture and additional support for those who work in difficult natural areas, such as mountains.

Copa-Cogeca, which brings together the main lobby of the farmers and the EU’s anxieties, characterized the day “Black Wednesday for European agriculture”.

In a caustic statement, he accused von der Layen of secretly preparing a “radical, unilateral and cynical” cut, while at the same time referring to hypocritical for dialogue.

‘We know exactly who will be most affected – the family farms, the cornerstone of our model ‘, The organization typically mentioned.

Within parliament, legislators from all over the political spectrum were consolidated. “Do not try to sell us a 25% reduction in CAP as a success story ‘, Noted by Herbert Dorfman, a veteran of the rural budget struggles from the center -right European People’s Party, the political family of von der Laien.

The Italian MP of Socialists and Democrats, Dario Nardela, was just as straight: “I may have understood the wrong, but 300 billion euros is no more than 386 billion euros. How can this be considered success? “

Hansen reacted, insisting that member countries can always complete their national funds for agriculture, but few believe that governments that have financial difficulties They will find the extra money.

‘We’ve got us trapped’, Alvaro, a farmer from Toledo, observed in Politico, who gave only his small name, summarizing the atmosphere on the protest line. “I wish we could survive without subsidies, but we need them. The Spanish countryside and European agriculture are destroyed by here (Brussels). “

Early in the evening, the farmers had gathered their flags and had gone home.

But the political dispute over Europe’s agricultural budget just started.