István Jakab, Vice President of the Hungarian National Assembly and President of the Hungarian Farmers’ Association (MAGOSZ), visited the largest German federal state on March 15. The occasion was a national holiday event organized by the Hungarian Consulate General in Düsseldorf.
North Rhine-Westphalia is one of the three most important agricultural regions in Germany. Around 1.49 million hectares of the state’s area are used for agriculture. The food industry generates around 40 billion euros annually, around a quarter of the entire German industry turnover. However, farmers are struggling with rising operating costs and the tightening of federal and European regulations. At the beginning of the year, farmers demonstrated nationwide against the currently planned reduction in subsidies.
Since then, they have continued to worry about their competitiveness and look for solutions that enable a sustainable and fair future for European agriculture. These challenges and the agricultural policy decisions, not least with regard to the upcoming Hungarian EU Council Presidency, were the focus of Jakab’s discussions with German farmer representatives.
Better cooperation between European farmers is needed
Georg Geuecke and Stephan Schneider, chairman and managing director of the Federal Association of Cattle and Pigs (BRS), emphasized at a meeting with Jakab that they had recently discovered with regret that the interests of German farmers were not sufficiently represented by the Berlin government. In contrast, the Eastern and Southern European countries would be perceived as real allies. It was therefore not surprising that there was great agreement on all key points during the conversation.
European farmers have a common interest in remaining competitive on the European and world markets. To do this, it is necessary to reduce bureaucratic and financial burdens, promote legal harmonization in the EU countries and demand environmental and animal welfare standards for imported agricultural products, which is not least relevant in light of the Mercosur agreement.
In view of the Europe-wide protests by farmers, both sides were of the opinion that cooperation and communication between European farmers should be strengthened at EU level in order to enable common, technically sound representation of interests. Since the federal association already has good relationships with Hungarian experts, they are optimistic about closer cooperation. The BRS representatives are confident that the Hungarian Council Presidency can also make progress in this area.
Almost identical positions
Jakab also had a similarly constructive conversation with Bernhard Conzen, the President of the Rhenish Agricultural Association, which represents 95 percent of the state’s farmers. Here too, the positions were almost identical. Both sides welcomed the joint commitment to comprehensive and effective interest representation at EU level. With regard to the agricultural protests, Conzen said that the farmers were “fed up”. If the negotiations with the federal government do not lead to an acceptable compromise in the next few days, then they are prepared to “go further”.
At the same time, he pointed out that in 10 to 15 years, European agriculture could be faced with serious supply problems and thus with growing import dependence, which represents a clear threat to the EU. Not least for this reason, the common goal of European farmers must be to support EU decision-makers with technically sound and clearly defined positions that could also be implemented as part of the Green Deal.
Farmers need more planning security
In order to further deepen the partnership between Hungary and North Rhine-Westphalia, which is also traditionally strong in the agricultural sector, Jakab also held discussions with Julia Kahle-Hausmann (SPD), deputy chairwoman of the state parliament’s committee for the environment, nature and consumer protection, agriculture, forestry and rural areas, and Ralf Nolten (CDU), member of this committee. There was agreement regarding the promotion of precision farming and increasing planning security for farmers.
With regard to the assertiveness of European farmers, Nolten attested to a close professional dialogue between EU decision-makers and farmers, which Jakab, however, questioned. Among other things, the parliamentary deputy pointed out the discrepancy that the Green Deal was launched without a comprehensive impact assessment for European agriculture.
While Jakab – like the German farmers’ associations – pointed out structural problems, the NRW MPs attributed the farmers’ protests solely to the reduction of subsidies and tax breaks. In any case, the discussion partners agreed that the dialogue must be continued.
National Day Reception
Most recently, István Jakab took part as a keynote speaker at a reception at the Hungarian Consulate General on the occasion of the anniversary of the revolution and the struggle for freedom of 1848/49. Together with State Parliament member Josef Neumann, deputy chairman of the parliamentary group for Poland, Ukraine, Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltics and Consul General Gergő Szilágyi, he emphasized the Hungarian people’s love of freedom and paid tribute to the heroes of the revolution.
Following the speeches, pianist and Junior Prima Prize winner Soma Balázs-Piri gave a concert with works by Schumann, Beethoven, Liszt and Chopin. As part of the event, Jakab finally presented the Officer’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit to the mycologist Professor Jan Iván Lelley.
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