Agriculture, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Markets and Companies

According to Jerumane, 48 people participated in the protest.

Agriculture Minister Martins Roze (Union of Greens and Farmers), who is currently in Brussels, visited the scene to congratulate the protesters on the 90th Anniversary of Latvia; Roze told the people that their protest had been noticed. "The goal of the protest today has been achieved, we have been noticed by those who had to notice us," said Jeruma.

The protest will continue today from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. After that the Latvian farmers will have an opportunity to take a tour of the European Parliament (EP) building and meet with EP members, said Jeruma.

Busmanis also told LETA that the Latvian farmers' protest in Brussels was noticed, especially because it was the first protest that Latvian farmers have organized in Brussels.

According to Busmanis, proposals are being drawn up so the new EU member states could benefit more from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) health check. "The goal of the current health check is to neither evaluate nor revise but to seek improvements to the existing Common Agricultural Policy," said Busmanis.

As reported, Roze has on several occasions told the EU agriculture ministers that the current system of direct payments is unfair and must be revised. However, the conditions of the direct payments for Latvia will most likely be only changed after 2013.

According to the Agriculture Ministry's estimates, if the current system of EU direct payments remains unchanged, Latvia will lose up to EUR 1.6 billion in direct payments over the next five years.