The Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, presented this Thursday to agricultural organizations a package of 18 measures to try to ensure that the rural protests, which have been blocking roads and cities in almost the entire country for ten days, do not get any worse. The block of initiatives focuses on increasing inspections, simplifying bureaucracy and defending initiatives in European institutions to limit competition from non-EU countries that harms national products.
The main measure included in the package presented by Planas to Asaja, COAG and UPA is the creation of the State Food Information and Control Agency, an organization that will seek to strengthen commercial inspections to guarantee effective compliance with the Food Chain law and prevent farmers and ranchers from selling their products below their costs. Minister Planas assured that the birth of this new mechanism will occur “soon” through its own law or taking advantage of a regulation being processed by parliament. Strengthening inspections that operate throughout the entire food chain is one of the demands of the agrarian protesters.
Planas also announced a legal change so that the digital notebook is not mandatory on farmers’ and ranchers’ farms. This was another of the countryside’s complaints and had become a headache for some professionals who until now supervise their crops and livestock practically by hand. The Minister of Agriculture announced that he will give the digital notebook voluntary status and will establish incentives for its implementation. “It will end up being like a smartphone,” said Planas. He also confirmed that professional diesel will continue to be subsidized.
The Minister of Agriculture also presented to agricultural organizations a proposal to simplify the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which the Government will defend in the EU. In fact, the ministry has already addressed the presidency of the Council and the Commissioner for Agriculture to propose that this matter become a “monographic point” at the next council of Agriculture Ministers in Brussels, on the 26th. Let it go ahead now. It does not depend on Planas. Specifically, Spain will propose the repeal of crop rotation and irrigated areas or the exemption of ecological areas in community regulations, among other measures. This measure was also valued by agricultural professionals as “advance.”
Planas also promised farmers that the Spanish Government will apply a maximum residue limit (MRL) to certain products imported from other countries that may pose a risk to public health or safety. “When necessary for substances that are not authorized in the EU, and the European Commission has not established the maximum residue limit, Spain will voluntarily set it at zero,” is the commitment presented by the minister.
Another advance valued as positive by farmers is the minister’s announcement to propose in international forums the elimination of georeferenced images to justify crops before Brussels. Regarding the “unfair competition” of products from other countries that agricultural professionals denounce, Planas stressed that the Executive will recommit itself to the defense of the so-called mirror clauses so that the same regulations are applied to these foreign crops. “What is prohibited here cannot be used in any product marketed here,” the minister clearly summarized. Spain will also ask the European Commission to strengthen customs control mechanisms and, in particular, will increase inspections at borders, that is, in ports.
The package of measures managed to partially calm the farmers’ organizations present at the meeting. Both Asaja (who had demonstrated in the morning with tractors in front of the ministry door), as well as COAG and UPA agreed that some of the measures announced by the minister are going in the right direction. However, they confirmed that they are maintaining the planned mobilizations until the 26th. Representatives of the central administration and organizations will meet in the coming days to finalize the measures.
For his part, Luis Planas valued positively that the mobilizations of farmers called by these agricultural organizations are authorized and are “peaceful.” The minister separated these demonstrations from those raised by groups linked to the extreme right.