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Laimdota Straujuma.

Eleven journalists from France, Hungary, Great Britain, Netherlands, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Poland, Germany, Denmark and Belgium, who visit Latvia to acquaint themselves with the situation in the rural areas, participated in the meeting with Straujuma today, writes LETA/Nozare.lv.

The minister explained the differences between the amounts of direct payments received by farmers in different EU member states, and the reason for the unequal payments.

"I understand other countries' agriculture ministers very well, because reducing the direct payments will be painful to any country, but there is no other way to level out the payments at the EU level. I also understand the situation in the EU budget. Even so, Latvia cannot accept such a huge difference in the direct payments," said the minister.

Straujuma expressed support for a suggestion that the money needed by Latvian farmers be secured from other aid measures, for instance, from the payments for rural development.

"We have discussed this. No matter where it comes from, but we do need this amount - 80 percent of the average amount of direct payments in the EU. If farmers in Latvia and the other Baltic countries receive area payments that are even fivefold smaller than in other countries, how will they compete and develop?" said Straujuma.

A Danish journalist remarked that Latvia might be interested in abandoning the direct payments in the entire EU altogether, to which Straujuma said she did not believe it could happen.

"I do not believe that the EU could ever accept such a solution. We have discussed the proposal with our farmers. Yes, they could support such a scenario, because that would also be a way to avoid distorted competition," she said.

After the meeting with Straujuma, the foreign journalists left to visit farms "Eimuri" and "Vecvindas", as well as Trikatas siers cheese production facility in Beverina Region. Tomorrow, the delegation will leave for Estonia.

As reported, direct area payments to Latvian farmers are currently the lowest in the EU - LVL 63 per hectare. The average amount of the direct payments in the EU is EUR 266 or LVL 186 per hectare.