Countryside crisis

Several dozen farmers are currently demonstrating with tractors in front of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, to ask its head, Luis Planas, to agree with agricultural organisations on solutions to the crisis in the countryside. | Mariscal

Humphrey CarterPalma16/02/2024 11:22
TW
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I have highlighted in the past how the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchéz, while being fan of the idea of the European Union, has a number of misgivings of how it actually functions. He’s even called for the EU to be stripped down and overhauled to make it more effective.

And this week, Sanchéz has made it clear to the EU that his government “supports the farmers” and that their demands are “legitimate”. He has even pledged to strengthen the national Food Chain Law, and to streamline the processing of Common Agricultural Policy aid as demonstrations spread across Europe, with the future of the continent’s agricultural and transportation sectors hanging in the balance and more protests to come.

Sanchéz has said that there is an excess of bureaucracy in the whole process of the Common Agricultural Policy and he has made it clear to Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, “this is something we need to simplify.”

Should anything change remains to be seen, but the unity of Europe is starting to splinter on a number of issues.