MEP Paulo do Nascimento Cabral (PSD) was one of those chosen to question the future European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, during his confirmation hearing, which took place today in Brussels, about POSEI and EAFRD.
In his speech, Paulo do Nascimento Cabral highlighted “the importance of the agricultural sector in the Outermost Regions and of agriculture for the maintenance of rural communities, vibrant ones, and also for strategic autonomy,” adding that “talking about agriculture in the Outermost Regions is also to talk about POSEI, and that the POSEI programme has not been updated for about 20 years.”
“With a factor of deflation 2%, we estimate losses at current prices of around 1/3, more of 30%, which is regrettable,” he stressed.
Nascimento Cabral lamented that “after the studies of the European Commission, and Parliament’s various resolutions and reports that defend its updating, nothing has been done,” questioning the Commissioner “if he is available to the authorities? We are going to work on a fair update of POSEI and ensure that it is on an equal footing with all other programmes,” adding the need to restore the 85% co-financing for the ORs under the EAFRD, which was lost in the last Multiannual Financial Framework.
The MEP ended his speech with an invitation to the new Commissioner “to visit the Azores and Madeira, two Regions outermost regions, to understand the difficulties that these regions and the farmers have,” and above all to understand how to “guarantee access to the European single market under the same conditions as other European farmers.”
In response to the MEP, the Commissioner said that he “fully supports POSEI,” that “it will have to guarantee the long-term security of the agri-food sector in the ORs” and that he will fight to ensure that “at least its maintenance is achieved.”
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
