Spain and Portugal have agreed to jointly ask the European Commission to adopt urgent drought measures.
According to the Spanish government, this would include the activation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) crisis reserve fund and an increase in advance payments up to the maximum legally permitted, “so that farmers and stockbreeders have more resources to mitigate the consequences of the lack of water on their farms”.
The two countries have agreed to express this need with “one voice”, at the next Council of Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries of the European Union meeting on May 30, following severe drought in the Iberian Peninsula.
The agreement between Luis Planas, Spanish Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and María do Céu Antunes, his Portuguese counterpart, has the support of France and Itlay.
Spain and Portugal
According to Minister Luis Planas strong relations between the two countries are key as “both share the same territory, they have to face similar problems and, together, they will defend before the commission the activation of urgent measures to help farmers and stockbreeders”.
The Spanish government said that the current climatic conditions have caused “serious damage” to agriculture and livestock farming in the Iberian Peninsula and also in “other EU countries”.
It added that climate change has resulted in “severely reduced rainfall, record high temperatures in April, and torrential rains and hail events that have also taken it’s toll on outdoor production and pastures”.
It is reported that in Spain and Portugal, the rain-fed crops and extensive livestock farming have been the most affected by these circumstances.
This plea follows on from last month’s when Fernando Miranda, Spain’s secretary general for agriculture and food, insisted on “urgent measures to alleviate the drought situation” at the EU council of agriculture and fisheries ministers.
Along with a letter from Minister Luis Planas to the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, in which Planas appealed to Wojciechowski to activate the crisis reserve fund of the CAP to give aid to Spain’s farmers and growers during the drought conditions.