Agriculture, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Latvia, Legislation, Markets and Companies

The Agricultural Ministry reported that during the council meeting the European Commission presented the latest proposals on the EU Common Fisheries Policy after 2020. According to these proposals, the average direct payments for Latvia will grow by 2% to 77% of the average level in the EU, and Latvia objects to this proposal.

"The very low direct area payments level in a combination of reduced rural development financing for a second period in row will be a heavy blow to Latvia’s farming. Reduction of rural development financing for countries who receive EU support below 90% of the average level in the EU is not acceptable," said Duklavs.

Duklavs in Luxembourg also met with the new German Agriculture Minister Julia Kloeckner to exchange opinions about the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after 2020 and explained Latvia’s position regarding direct area payments. Both ministers agreed that the European Commission’s new proposal does not meet the promises given earlier.

As reported, the European Commission on June 1 released its regulation proposals for the European Union’s (EU) new CAP for 2021-2027, which among other measures also includes the distribution of direct payments and rural development support among the bloc’s member states.

In the next programming period, the Commission proposes cutting rural development funding to member states by 15% and reducing direct payments to farmers by 3.9% from the period of 2014-2020. The proposals provide for releasing EUR 2.27 billion in direct payments to Latvia’s farmers, up from EUR 1.7 billion allocated in the programming period 2014-2020.

The direct payments would not be reduced for a few member states, including Latvia. The European Commission proposes to slightly increase these payments for Latvian farmers to EUR 202 per hectare as of 2026.

The 15% reduction of rural development funding means that the funding for Latvia’s Rural Development Program would decrease by EUR 147 million from the current programming period to EUR 0.82 billion for 2021-2027.