Harakopoulos: Not a shred of uncultivated land at risk of wheat

The position of Greece in the war in Ukraine, but also in the consequences on the economy and the primary production that impose the cultivation of every piece of land in the EU, was mentioned, among others, by the chairman of the Standing Committee on Public Administration, Public Order and Justice, MP Larissa of New Democracy, Mr. Maximos Harakopoulos speaking to “Voice of Greece”.

Asked about this, the government MP stressed that “Greece, of course, can make its good services available to all parties involved. Greece, however, is a member of the EU and the EU has taken a clear stand against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I would say that it does so not only because it is on the side of law, the application of international law, but also because Hellenism has the painful experience of a similar invasion, the Turkish invasion in 1974, in an independent state, which is Cyprus. and forty-eight years now, it is an open wound for Hellenism. So, Greece de facto had to take a clear position and be on the side of the victim and not on the side of the perpetrator “.

Maximos Harakopoulos stressed, however, that “Turkey, on the one hand, buys weapons from Russia and, on the other hand, sells unmanned aircraft to Ukraine. He did not follow the rest of the Western world in imposing sanctions on Russia, he seeks to do business with both sides. It is a more special situation. You have seen that even countries that had special relations with Russia, such as Hungary, for example, which in the past boasted that it was getting gas at much better prices than other EU countries, are firmly on Ukraine’s side. These countries, precisely because during the Soviet period and earlier they experienced the expansionist policy of tsarist Russia, are very cautious, not to use a heavier expression, towards Russia. You see the reactions of Poland to the Baltic countries and we also receive this impact in our organization in the Interparliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy. “May peace prevail as soon as possible, find a solution based on international law so that a new iron curtain is not erected, as Churchill once described the dividing line between Eastern and Western Europe, after World War II.” .

Risk of food crisis

Regarding the effects of the war on the world economy, the Thessalian politician pointed out that “we have a serious risk of wheat, food security in Europe and in our region because both Ukraine and Russia are among the main granaries of Europe. 30% of cereals are produced in these countries and there is a serious risk. You can already see that in many European countries there is this fear and they resort to the supply of food related to cereals. We will have a shortage of sunflower oil, for example, which is also widely produced in Ukraine and opens a wider debate on the EU Common Agricultural Policy. Until recently, there was a view that we should give more space to the so-called “greening” , in the so-called “fallow”, to leave uncultivated land, to afforest fields and even with subsidies. After the shock of the war and the danger of food security, I heard the other day the French Minister of Agriculture say that not a speck of European land should be left uncultivated.

The equation is even more difficult to solve because a large part of the fertilizers, agricultural supplies, are also produced in Russia. The increases that had already taken place in energy since the gas price spike have led four fertilizer plants to idle because fertilizer prices were outrageous. We are now at risk, while we will have shortages in imports of cereals from abroad and domestic production will not be as expected, because farmers will have great difficulty in throwing the fertilizers that the land needs to bear fruit. In other words, they will not fertilize the land so much, their fields, due to costs, as a result of which we will have smaller productions, and therefore the problem will intensify even further “.

Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news