Solutions to the problems that have arisen from the effects of the climate crisis are being asked by Brussels officials more and more Member States of the “27”.

The severe weather events that have affected many regions of Europe have caused significant damage to large areas of the Community’s agricultural sector, destroying in addition to crops and agricultural equipment worth several hundred million euros.

Characteristic examples are “Daniel» that struck her Thessalythe disasters in Italy and specifically in Emilia-Romagna but also the recent floods in Spainin the region of Valencia.

In all of this, one should add the significant loss of income that farmers and breeders are facing, and which many times the affected Member States are asked to cover, thus burdening their state budgets.

“Climate change has increased the intensity and frequency of adverse events in Europe. Greece is experiencing its devastating effects and clearly supports, like other Member States, the need for a European strategy to adapt to climate change, especially in the agricultural sector” the Secretary General of Agricultural Policy and International Relations of the Ministry of Rural Development told APE-MPE & Food, Kostas Baginetas and added “the European Commission must carry out a plan that will cover both the prevention and adaptation to climate change, as well as the immediate response to the consequences in cases of disasters from extreme weather phenomena”.

During the last meetings of Ministers of Agriculture of the European Union, there have been discussions to deal with these issues and the establishment of a European Special Fund to deal with the consequences in the primary sector from natural disasters has fallen on the “table”.

Mediterranean countries, such as Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, etc., which have been disproportionately affected by the effects of the climate crisis, give greater importance in this direction.

Greece, as stated by the Minister of Rural Development and Food, Costa Ciara during our country’s participation in the MED9 group (Mediterranean member states of the E.U.), she is positive about the creation of such a tool by the E.U.

It is the same position that has been formulated by Mr. Tsiaras and during the meetings he had with the new European Commissioner for Agriculture, Christoph Hansen, pointing out that this will give a big “breath” to the affected producers and help them “get back on their feet”.

“The existing means and tools for crisis management are not flexible or effective enough, because they were not designed to deal with impacts related to climate change”, emphasizes Mr. Bayonet.

The proposed solutions

The actions of Mr. Ciara during the recent Council of Ministers of Agriculture. There, in collaboration with his Cypriot counterpart, Maria Panagiotou but also with other European ministers, mainly from the Mediterranean, they asked for a special Fund to deal with the consequences of natural disasters in the primary sector.

Something like this was also emphasized during the visit of Ms. Panagiotou in Greece in November, with both sides “sounding the alarm” about the effects of the climate crisis, and the problems it creates in the two countries, but stressing that solutions will be sought to deal with them at the European level.

The c.g. of YPAAT, as he told APE-MPE, “this European framework should include flexible rules in the management of CAP Interventions, but also risk mitigation tools, such as support for innovation and targeted investments” while “as regards financial within and taking into account the limited budgetary possibilities of several Member States, the flexibility in the transfer of Union resources, the improvement of cooperation between the European financial funds and the strengthening of the agricultural reserve crisis or the creation of a new special Fund with separate financing, can be part of the solution”.

In this direction, as well as the goals set, both the two ministers and their counterparts propose, among other things:

* Creation of a credit mechanism for the immediate relief of those affected by natural disasters, a consequence of climate change.

* Opening a credit line for upgrading and/or creating infrastructure at national, regional and farm level.

* Investigating possible retributive benefits to farmers who implement additional measures to address the above problems. Measures that will not be related to the ecological programs but will be in the direction of achieving the policies of the association. Emphasis should be placed on the foregone income of farmers due to taking these initiatives.

* Italy’s proposal for reinsurance at EU level to make insurance products more attractive.

With CAP 2027 the changes?

However, as officials of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food pointed out to APE-MPE, any changes and a possible establishment of the Special Fund will take place after 2027, when the new Common Agricultural Policy will be implemented.

“The new Fund, if this is done, will be put into operation after 2027 and after the budget of the Common Agricultural Policy is first announced” they told the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency.

As reported today, the CAP 2023-2027 foresees an agricultural reserve, which has a budget of 450 million. euros, which covers damages from natural disasters, for each year of its application. It is worth noting that the said money, however, is withheld from the resources that the Member States have available for disposal, with whatever that entails.

However, in the ongoing discussions on the Agricultural Common after 2027, it has been proposed to explore the following proposals:

– Strengthening the CAP budget and increasing the amount of the agricultural reserve.

– Flexibility by transferring resources from other EU funds. in the case of non-absorption of the funds, as in the case of the Regional Emergency Support for Reconstruction (RESTORE) and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD)

– Creation of a new Fund for the management of ongoing crises for the exclusive coverage of losses in agricultural production, based on the COVID pandemic management fund or on the model of the Solidarity Fund

– Support for the proposal of Croatia and Slovenia submitted to the Council of Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries (October 2023) for Ad hoc crisis response using 2% (up to 5%) of the CAP budget

– Creation of the 3rd Pillar of climate change within the framework of the CAP

– Fund referred to the Strategic Dialogue on Agriculture (Temporary Just Transition Fund), a temporary Just Transition Fund outside the Common Agricultural Policy, with the mobilization of public and private funds and the participation of the European Investment Bank.