Portuguese Agriculture Minister José Manuel Fernandes pledged on Thursday to step up the implementation of the various EU programmes for the sector as the opposition criticised the government’s handling of the bluetongue epidemic.

On the second and final day of the general debate on the government’s proposal for the 2025 state budget, Fernandes exchanged views with MPs from the PS, PCP, Chega, Livre, and PAN.

In his address, the minister argued that unlike in the past, the government was simplifying and paying farmers “on time”, trying to provide “stability and confidence”.

“In the reprogramming of PEPAC (Strategic Plan for the Common Agricultural Policy), our first objective is to increase farmers’ income and generational renewal. The draft state budget will contribute €60 million a year until 2029. The average farmer’s income will thus rise from €81.7 per hectare to €126, an increase of more than 50%,” he added.

Fernandes also noted that young farmers, exclusively, “will now receive €50,000 (a 100% increase). On the other hand, in terms of the execution of funds, he pointed out that, during the time of the Socialist governments, the annual value of investment executed between 2016 and 2023 was €222.5 million”.

“For the period between 2024 and 2029, it will be €246.3 million. We are executing what the previous government didn’t,” he said, discussing some of the programmes.

“We received €668 million from the RDP (Rural Development Plan 2020), which we have to implement by 2025. We also have to implement a further €400 million. That’s more than €1 billion from the EAFRD (European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development willing to implement in about a year and a half,” he said.

According to the former Social Democrat MEP, the former PS government “executed zero and made zero payments” in PEPAC.

But these figures failed to convince liberal MP Mário Amorim Lopes, who called for greater tax incentives for farmers to encourage more people to settle in rural areas.

While CDS MP João Almeida considered that having the Agriculture Minister speak in the budget debate demonstrated the new centrality of the sector in government policy, Socialist MP Nelson Brito countered by saying: “In government, Minister for Cohesion: 1, Minister for Agriculture: 0”.

Like Nelson Brito, PCP deputy Alfredo Maia claimed that the farmers’ associations had lost hope in the government, pointing out that the bluetongue epidemic “contradicts the propaganda”.

(Pedro Morais Fonseca – edited by Pedro Sousa Carvalho | Lusa.pt)

Source: Euractiv.com