The field mobilizes for the European Championships and contacts the parties to keep their demands alive

The countdown to the European elections begins, and the countryside knows it. He is aware that this legislature is his opportunity to alleviate the crisis that has been suffocating them for years. And the representatives of the sector have already begun active mobilization to achieve make their needs a problem that occupies the agenda of community authoritiesone of the key objectives of the primary sector for the coming months, as announced Vozpópuli.

In this context, the Spanish camp has already made a move and, among other actions, has established contact with all political parties to present their action plan, their demands and their intentions regarding the activity in Brussels in the next four years. One of those who have contacted the parties has been the Coordinator of Farmers and Livestock Organizations (COAG) has presented to all the candidate political groups a package with the proposals that they want to send to the Commissionwith the aim of taking them into account for the 9J European Parliament elections.

“The professional and social model of agriculture is weakening, with declines in agricultural income, dismantling of productive activity in large sectors and territories, declines in production, closure of farms and loss of employment, aging of farmers, rural depopulation … So far the common agricultural policy has not been able to reverse this decline!“, begins the letter from the agrarian union to the parties.

In the aforementioned document they organize the demands that they want to send to Brussels in five blocks: fair prices, flexibility of the current CAP, addressing generational change, sustainability and climate change, and innovation. In turn, each section includes more specific measures related to it. In this way, the unions are preparing to face key elections for the primary sector throughout Europe, and are trying to set the agenda of the Spanish parties with the aim of keep your demands alive.

Furthermore, they thus confirm what they already reported exclusively to this newspaper: the mobilizations are over for now and now the work will be more bureaucratic, with an eye on Brussels. “We look at the European elections with great expectation; We know the importance we have, because people are going to necessarily talk about us, and we want to set the political agenda, we have to be very prepared for it,” sources from COAG and other agricultural associations stated in conversations with this newspaper.

The associations of the field also point to Europe

Not only unions are mobilizing to achieve victory in the elections. The field is fully aware of its key role this legislature and the entire sector is acting accordinglytaking advantage of the fact that “for the first time it seems that politicians are listening to the countryside.”

The large agricultural associations are also targeting Europe and are beginning to mobilize for 9J. For example, the independent organization SOS Rural has prepared a roadmap to apply pressure in these key weeks. To this end, they have prepared a specific manifesto for the occasion, which they have also sent to representatives of political parties that are vying for a place in Brussels.

They have worked in a very similar way to COAG, although in their case they aim directly at Europe while in the union they prefer to start the ‘war’ from Spain. They have organized their requests into six themes, and each of them includes two or three very specific proposals. So the themes are: security, stability, sustainability, modernity, rurality and globality.

Another example of an agricultural association that has taken sides in this race towards Europe, taking advantage of the European elections, has been the National Federation of Irrigation Communities of Spain (FENACORE), which through a letter has asked the political parties bureaucratic obstacles are eased that threaten agricultural holdings and has proposed reforming the regulatory framework to allow European farmers to compete on equal terms and guarantee food security.

In a very extensive ten-page letter, consulted by VozpópuliFENACORE has regretted “the difficulties and administrative obstacles that create suffocating, bureaucratic regulations, foreign to common sense and far from the reality of the agricultural sector” and has asked all groups of the European Parliament with Spanish representation to urgently approve all necessary changes. Among many diverse aspects, the federation requires the construction of hydraulic works, such as dams and reservoirs, the application of a reduced VAT to Irrigation Communities on energy supplies or the approval of mirror clauses.