The ministers met for talks today in Poznań during the Polagra trade fair.

The head of the Polish Ministry of Agriculture noted that there was considerable consensus among the ministers attending the debate in their views on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy.

“Given the new financial outlook, implementation of a new common agricultural policy is dragging on. Our joint position is that a transition period of at least two years should be granted to allow us to make adequate organizational, administrative and institutional preparations,” minister Ardanowski added.

The meeting was attended by 11 ministers of agriculture, four from the Visegrad Group states – Poland, Hungary, Czechia and Slovakia – who were joined by the ministers of Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovenia. Seven of them attended in Poznań, while the others participated via an internet link. A message to the session participants from Janusz Wojciechowski, the EU Commissioner for Agriculture, was also delivered online.

The Commissioner emphasized that the Common Agricultural Policy is being reformed to implement the Green New Deal, making agriculture environmentally friendly. The policy is oriented towards meeting the expectations of consumers for high quality food.

“Two goals are important – decreasing the use of chemicals and mineral fertilisers, and increasing the area of green agriculture, while simultaneously assuring farmers fair income from agricultural production,” the Commissioner stated.

Today's summit of ministers of agriculture was capped off with the signing of a joint declaration.

The concluding statement adopted by the ministers states that changes aimed at sustainable agriculture are essential to achieve the goals of the Green New Deal, including the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies. The statement also states that the level of ambition demonstrated by the two strategies and the degree to which they are incorporated into future strategic plans should be realistic, feasible, and aligned with the CAP financing decisions, especially with the unequal division of direct payments.

“Each country has its own specific nature, farms of certain sizes, climatic conditions, and types of crops, and therefore more flexibility is necessary to account for specific national and regional characteristics in selecting activities promoting the environment,” said the head of the Polish Ministry of Agriculture.

The summit of ministers of agriculture of the Visegrad Group in Poznań is also accompanied by bilateral meetings.

Yesterday, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski talked with Slovenian deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Aleksandra Pivec. The parties jointly noted the need to exclude small agricultural farms from conditionality control, and that the two countries needed to cooperate on secondary education and trade. On her own, Slovenia is able to cover a mere 30 percent of its fruit and vegetable needs.

Today, Polish-Hungarian talks were held, attended on the Polish side by Secretary of State Szymon Giżyński, while Hungary was represented by Secretary of State Zsolt Feldman.

The ministers signed a memorandum on Polish-Hungarian cooperation in agricultural vocational training.

The document summarizes and enhances the already existing, extensive contacts between agricultural schools in the two countries while providing new, wider opportunities for cooperation supporting modern agricultural vocational training.