They are approved by the EU the amendments to the Common Agricultural Policy requested by Greece, pointed out the Minister of Rural Development and Food, Lefteris Avgenakis, in his intervention at the ministry’s conference, on the theme “Cultivating tomorrow – Policies for agricultural education and training”, held in Thessaloniki in the context of this year’s 30th anniversary Agrotica.

“Most of the agricultural problems are solved at the European level, and that’s why we create alliances with the aim of solving the problems of the primary sector”, he pointed out.

Mr. Avgenakis again invited the people of the primary sector at the discussion table, characteristically saying “together and with dialogue more will be gained” and announced that the EU will accept the changes to the CAP requested by our country. “The unofficial information from the European Commission is that the changes to the CAP requested by Greece from December 28 are accepted,” he stressed.

The changes and interventions in the CAP requested by Greece concern the following:

  • Changes related to eligibility and concerning amendments to the codes of agricultural practice, which are the mandatory commitments for the granting of aid to farmers/breeders.
  • Changes concerning elements of direct aid. Among other things, proposals for the ecological programs (environment, climate and animal welfare), the linked aid of Article 32 and the special aid for cotton.
  • Interventions such as advance payment proposals in the wine, fruit and vegetable, olive oil and beekeeping sectors.
  • Interventions for rural development, including the introduction of a new insurance premium subsidy intervention with an EU contribution of €200 million.
  • Rural development interventions, including those that bring about changes in the numerical targets and associated milestones for the relevant outcome indicators.
  • Changes for more effective implementation of the AKIS system and the National CAP Network.

At the same time, he recalled the decision of the Commission, based on which cultivation is allowed on lands that had entered the fallow program and concerns our country 1.5 million acres and about 130,000 farmers.

In his presentation at the conference, he referred to the initiatives taken by the government to make the problem of Thessaly European – in addition to national – as well as the joint actions of EUMED-9 to create a permanent crisis response mechanism within the EU, but also to increase the agricultural reserve.

The Agrotica exhibition closes tomorrow.