MEP Siegfried Muresan in the plenary sitting of the European Parliament put forward seven measures to support farmers in Europe. Among these is crisis support by mobilizing European instruments, including crisis reserves that provide financial support, IPN reports.
“I said that the people in Europe trust the quality of food, food safety, and the European farmer is at the heart of this success. That’s why we have an obligation to listen to Europe’s farmers. That’s why we have a duty to support and protect them. We need to modernize agriculture with the armers, not against them,” stated Siegfried Muresan.
The MEP suggests that no decision in the agricultural sector should be approved without listening to farmers. The measures should not be adopted without knowing their impact. Bureaucracy should also be reduced. Farmers must spend more time cultivating the land than filling out forms. Ensuring the quality and quantity of food production in Europe is another proposed measure. “We should produce more food in Europe, not less,” said Siegfried Muresan.
In his view, investments should be made in rural areas as a whole. “We want good schools, good hospitals. We are ready to invest in digitalization, in green transition and also in infrastructure in rural areas,” noted the MEP.
Farmers in a number of European countries, including Romania, France, and Italy, recently mounted large-scale protests, formulating demands to their national governments and also invoking common problems related to the EU requirements.
Protests took place in Moldova too. Farmers brought their agricultural machines to the Great National Assembly Square in central Chisinau. Although some time has passed since those protests, farmers from Cahul district announced for today a peaceful protest for an indefinite period.
The Association “Farmers’ Force” announced that it supports the protest of farmers from southern Moldova. “This protest is largely due to the inaction of the responsible authorities during the past two years in relation to thousands of micro-, small- and medium-sized farmers. In November 2023, our organization warned that the situation in the agricultural sector was critical, especially for cereals and oilseeds, that the vast majority of agricultural producers are highly decapitalized, pressured by lenders and will not have minimal resources for spring works. I then proposed a number of urgent solutions to save the sector. Unlike states of the European Union, our government has treated the situation with irresponsibility and arrogance. The country’s leadership refused to have a dialogue with farmers,” said the Association’s executive director Alexandru Slusari.
