08.07.2011
The European Agriculture Commissioner, Dacian Cioloş, stated that the new law projects regarding the EU’s agricultural and rural development policies for 2014-2020 will change the ways in which subsidies are offered – both in terms of payment methods and regarding the amount available.
“We will propose simpler ways to support small farms, we will define more clearly the notions of agricultural worker» and «active agricultural worker, in order to avoid giving away funds to people who own lands but are not farmers nor do they work the land”, Dacian Cioloş says, explaining that „subsidies will no longer be linked to production”.
The commissioner thinks it’s important for the subsidy not to be connected with the type of production, because farmers must choose what they grow according to the market, and not depending on how high subsidies are. “It’s not enough to stimulate, through subsidies, certain types of production, if they can’t fit on the market. So the farmer must choose accordingly. Subsidies will differ from one farm category to the other, probably from one region to the other, but not necessarily based on production”, Cioloş says, stating there will still be per capita subsidies in the animal husbandry sector.