Common front of Catalan peasantry against PAC cuts

BarcelonaCatalan agriculture does not seem to find a moment of peace with Brussels. After the 2024 demonstrations and the battle that last year's approval of the trade agreement with Mercosur represented, the country's agricultural sector has clashed with the European Commission's proposals for the multiannual financial framework — the Union's budget — for the 2028-2034 period. The project by Ursula Von der Leyen's executive includes profound changes in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Changes that have displeased neither the regional entities nor the Government, who have staged their unity this Tuesday against a large part of the aspects of the Twenty-Seven's project. "We do not agree with the cuts, nor with the elimination of the two pillars, nor with a recentralization of competences," enumerated the Minister of Agriculture of the Generalitat, Òscar Ordeig, at an event organized at the department's headquarters.

The leaders of the most representative organizations of the country's agriculture have united around Ordeig to make effective a "common position" towards the changes in the CAP that, in their opinion, threaten the survival of many Catalan agricultural holdings. The national president of Young Farmers and Ranchers of Catalonia (JARC), Joan Carles Massot, has criticized what he considers the traditional dance of any "change of stage" in the European budget. "It's always the same: with the initial messages from the commissioner of the day, the music sounds good. But as negotiations progress, it starts to go off-key," denounced Massot. According to the leader of the JARC, Brussels is "losing" focus on European food sovereignty, the core intention of the common policy. Should this horizon be abandoned, he lamented, "it will be very difficult to return to it".

In a similar vein, the national coordinator of Unió de Pagesos, Raquel Serrat, has regretted that the progressive cutback in resources associated with the CAP has been accompanied by a toughening of the "environmental and social" demands that Europe imposes on the countryside. "If the budget is not adequate to apply them, family farming will be the most affected," stressed the leader of UP, which represents small and medium-sized agricultural holdings. The economic reductions stem, in the eyes of the president of the Federation of Agrarian Cooperatives of Catalonia (FCAC), Ramon Sarroca, from a "loss of political weight of agriculture in negotiations" in Brussels. "This goes beyond the loss of budget," he snapped. To avoid cutbacks, Ordeig has defended the two-pillar model, "support for agricultural income and rural development," without which there is a risk, according to the minister, of "diluting the objectives" of the program.

Decide from Catalonia

In addition to the allocation and distribution of resources, the parties have been critical of a possible "recentralization" of decisions linked to agricultural policy. The new policy is based on the application of the strategic plans of the member states. This change of focus, in the eyes of the Government and the entities, diminishes the prominence of territorial administrations, which are closer to the productive fabric.

"We want to maintain autonomy, flexibility, and a criterion of regionalization. It would not be understood if certain policies were the same for one end of the State as for the Ebro or Empordà," replied Ordeig. Serrat has been more specific, warning that "if decisions are centralized and others decide for us, the needs of the farmers will not be met as we do from here."

The agricultural organizations have also claimed the CAP resources as a breath of fresh air to avoid the risks that the entry into force of the treaty with Mercosur poses for local producers the entry into force of the treaty with Mercosur. Serrat recalled the "inferiority of conditions" in which Catalan farmers find themselves compared to some food segments in the region. "Having a CAP with adequate funding is key," he argued, to avoid these market disruptions. Along the same lines, Massot reiterated that the entities are "frontally against" the opening of trade borders and pointed out that the CAP will have to be a "determining factor" in compensating farms harmed by the new food imports.