Baltic states step up battle over 'unfair' CAP convergence proposals

摘要

Agriculture in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia has suffered from an "unfair" distribution of CAP direct payments since 2004 and the plans for 2014-2020 remain unacceptable, politicians and farmer groups from the region have argued. Farmers from the three Baltic member states handed a 60 OOO-strong petition to European Parliament President Martin Schulz last week demanding a better deal and staged a protest outside the European Council building in Brussels. Labour costs may be lower in the three countries but farm input costs are not, stressed Latvian MEP Sandra Kalniete, claiming that the low level of direct aids is largely to blame for the abmdonment of agriculture and Imd in the region.