Wallonia wants to convince Commissioner of Agriculture of the weaknesses of the CAP

The European Commissioner for Agriculture was visiting Tuesday in Wallonia. Phil Hogan tried to convince the Minister-President, the Minister of Agriculture and a panel of agricultural organizations of the merits of his reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. This CAP raises, not without reason, a great deal of concern among pastoralists and farmers

The reform is worrying in many ways and above all because it reduces the amount of aid. Walloon Minister-President Willy Borsus anticipates a loss of the order of 10%. " Perhaps more according to the criteria that would be defined, so there are legitimate anxieties on the farms ."

When we invest, it is over twenty years, stability is therefore very important

The situation is all the more alarming for Walloon farmers and herders as their financial equilibrium depends on European aid. For Manuel Tilmant, who runs a farm in Namur, these incessant changes in agricultural policy are a real problem. " If we want young people to settle, we need stability, they need to know where they are going, and when we invest, we do not invest for two or three years, we invest over twenty years, so stability is very important. "

Farmers also blame the new PAC formula for distorting competition. The reform does not take into account very different production conditions, explains Manuel Tilmant: " The social rules are not at all the same and next to that, we sell the cereals exactly the same price."

There is no shortage of criticism of the CAP 2021-2027 plan. Agricultural unions repeated them on Tuesday to Phil Hogan. The Walloon government has tried to convince the Commissioner that adaptations are as possible as possible.