The new reform of the European agricultural policy is aimed at ensuring sustainable production of high-quality food at affordable prices and with as less red tape as possible and keeping young people in rural areas. Croatia could profit from this by being allocated €5 billion.

The European Parliament meets in a plenary session next week to discuss the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which is expected to become effective in 2023.

Parliament will adopt its position on negotiations with the Council of the EU on three key issues – support to strategic plans being developed by member states, financing and monitoring, and the common organisation of the markets in agricultural products.

According to Eurostat, there were 10.5 million agricultural holdings in the EU in 2016, 95% of which were family farms and nearly a third of their owners were aged 65 and over.

Speaking about the reform at an online news conference, MEP Suncana Glavak of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) said that aside from the proposed allocation of close to five billion euros for Croatia for agriculture and rural development in the next seven-year period, it was also agreed that the rate of co-financing for rural development would be raised from 70 to 85% for underdeveloped regions.

MEP Ruza Tomasic of the Croatian Conservative Party warned that insufficient generational renewal was one of the bigger challenges in the farm sector and the reason why the number of farmers was decreasing every year. She pointed to the importance of developing rural tourism as a significant contribution to rural economy and generational renewal.

Tomasic also underlined the importance of encouraging technological innovation that could bring about change in the farm sector.

As for the common organisation of the agricultural market, she said that it was necessary to ensure fast implementation of measures to deal with market disruptions adapted to a specific situation, such as the current coronavirus crisis.

The Common Agricultural Policy should improve the work of Croatian farmers, but Croatia must find a way to absorb EU money fast, efficiently and transparently, she said.

In recent years agricultural production in Croatia has been registering declines in almost all sectors due to excessive cheap imports and low purchasing power.

According to the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, agricultural production in Croatia has decreased by 26% in the last five years, from around HRK 21 billion in 2012 to around HRK 17 billion in 2019.