European Commission leaders have been warned to “wake up and look after European farmers” by the president of an Irish farm body at a major protest in Brussels today (Thursday, June 1).
The protest has been organised to highlight European farmers concerns about the proposed Nature Restoration Law.
It was staged outside the European Parliament buildings by farmers and various farm organisations from across Europe including Borenbond, Copa-Cogeca, and Asaja Nacional.
The president of the Irish Farmers’ Association, and Copa-Cogeca vice-president, Tim Cullinan, was one of a number of leaders from the farm organisations who today addressed the protest outside European Parliament buildings.
Cullinan urged the executive vice-president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, to wake up and listen to European farmers.
He said: “The farming community has watched with dismay and confusion with regards to how the Nature Restoration Law has developed in the European Parliament over the past months.
“When farmers, and forest-owners say this is too much, we speak from experience. It is us who would be first to be impacted by this law, it is us who would have to bear the cost, it is us who would lose parts if not all of our land for the restoration of peatlands.
“We simply ask that you listen to our farmers and do not ignore our advice.”
The key message from European farm organisations today was that the proposed Nature Restoration Law threatens the way they produce food and where they produce that food.
Lode Ceyssens, the president of Belgian agricultural organisation Borenbonds said: “With the action we are launching today, we want to wake up the policy and make our farmers’ concerns
clear in Brussels.
“For too long we have been sleepwalking this proposal through the co-decision process. It is time we hit the pause button, send it back to the Commission, and truly ask where they see food producers in Europe fitting into the future of nature restoration”.
Asaja Nacional, the Spanish farmer’s union, also said the proposal was “unworkable and should be returned to sender”.
Copa-Cogeca, which represents 22 million farmers and agri-cooperatives in the EU, has also asked MEPs to give their support to “farmers and EU agriculture production”.
The protest comes against the backdrop of both the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and the Committee on Fisheries rejecting the proposed nature restoration opinion .
Nature Restoration Law
Meanwhile the IFA farm business committee have also put their concerns directly to Irish MEPs at the European Parliament about a number of issues including the proposed Nature Restoration Law that may impact on Irish farmers.
The committee met with a number of MEPs at the parliament to highlight these concerns and to share feedback from their members.
Deirdre Clune, Fine Gael MEP for Ireland South, believes it is “important to have Irish voices at the table on key European matters linked to agriculture, the environment and health”.