site.btaAgriculture Minister: New Solutions Needed on Functioning of EU Climate Change Crisis Reserve

There is a need to look for other EU funds, beyond agricultural funds, to finance agriculture in view of climate change, this opinion was expressed by the agriculture ministers of the Visegrad Group at a meeting in Poznan, Poland, where they discussed the post-flood situation and possible future joint EU action. New solutions need to be sought on the functioning of the EU climate change crisis reserve, Agriculture Minister Georgi Tahov said for his part, as quoted in a press release of his ministry on Thursday.

Tahov pointed out that farmers need appropriate support tools to cope with the aftermath of drought and floods. He noted that thousands of farms were affected by unusually high temperatures and a long period of drought in 2024. According to him, it has led to a reduction in this year's average maize and sunflower yields. "In addition, our country has also experienced a series of unprecedented fires. Rebuilding the burnt farms and areas will take enormous financial and time resources, which creates a credible risk of abandoning farming," Tahov added.

Tahov stressed that a new system for crisis prevention and management should be established and insisted that it should be flexible, effective and tailored to the specificities of individual member states.

During the meeting of ministers from the Visegrad Group (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) and Bulgaria and Romania, the future challenges of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) were also discussed. Tahov pointed out that, above all, the CAP needs an adequate budget that provides a fair level of support to farmers, bringing certainty to the sector. He also reiterated the need to maintain successful policy instruments such as direct payments. "Priority should be given to achieving convergence in direct payment levels and achieving external convergence so that farmers in countries with lower payments are on an equal footing with other farmers in the EU," he said.