Latvian farmers will stage simultaneous protests in Brussels and Riga on October 12

Protesting that no change for the better is likely regarding unfair European Union area payments to farmers, Latvian farmers will stage simultaneous protests in Brussels and Riga on October 12, as farmers' organizations representatives told "Nozare.lv".

"At least forty farmers will travel to Brussels to stage a protest at the European Parliament building. We are planning that farmers from Lithuania and Estonia will protest together with us. At the same time, a much larger number of people will participate in a protest in Riga near the European Commission Representation," said Agita Hauka, the Latvian Farmers' Federation chair.

October 12, the European Commission will present its proposals for Common Agricultural Policy reform, which will be reviewed in the European Parliament. It strongly appears that the final decision will not be in Latvian farmers' interest, Farmers' Saeima previously told LETA.

As reported, Latvian farmers currently receive the smallest direct payments in the EU - EUR 90 (LVL 63) per hectare, while the average figure in the EU is EUR 266 (LVL 186) per hectare. Several countries' farmers receive even up to EUR 600 (LVL 420) per hectare.

The European Commission has proposed that the funding system for direct payments to EU farmers be altered, albeit minimally - countries where farmers receive area payments larger than the EU average, LVL 186, would have the payments reduced, whereas farmers in the countries receiving the lowest payments would have the payments raised. According to this proposal, farmers in Latvia will receive LVL 35 more per hectare. This proposal, however, is unacceptable to Latvia as it would still make the direct payments discriminatory for Latvian farmers. The Ministry of Agriculture said previously that it would do everything in its power to achieve that the direct payments to Latvian farmers be at least LVL 140 per hectare.

LETA

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