Slovak farmers, along with their partners from the V4 (Visegrad Four - the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland) countries, are ready to join the protests of their European peers against shortcomings of the current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union, representatives of the Slovak Agriculture and Food Chamber (SPPK) told a news conference held in front of the parliament building, Report informs referring to TASR.
"European and Slovak farmers have run out of patience. What's happening in half the EU countries, namely that farmers are protesting, burning tires, pouring liquid manure on administrative centers, is just a consequence of what is often caused by green fanaticism in the EU," stated SPPK chairman Emil Macho. According to Macho, the EU is turning into a territory where 5-6 percent of the fertile land is left fallow and there are only weeds on it.
"In addition, thousands of tonnes of crops, meat and poultry are imported to Europe from the other side of the planet through ports. This is also why European farmers are blocking ports, as they want to show that Europe is able to feed itself on its own and even export these commodities. We don't need soybeans from Brazil or tomatoes from Morocco," he stressed.
The second fundamental problem is that European farmers are no longer people who work in the fields, but people who sit in offices. "Today, if you don't pay a person who fills in the EU's often senseless administrative regulations, then you have no chance to work on the field," stated Macho.
"Slovak farmers are ready to go to the streets if we manage to coordinate our procedure with our European partners within the V4. We want to stress in advance that if it is to make any sense, we have to do it like the Germans and French did. Not 50, 100 or 200 tractors, but hundreds of them of them will come to the streets with a single purpose - we want to work, we don't want to be bureaucrats. We want to grow what we are able to grow in Slovakia. Before the EP elections, we want to draw attention to the fact that even the so-called green politics can be done in a reasonable manner," added Macho.
