Farmers generally satisfied after meeting with PM
Farmers’ representatives have said they are generally positive after a meeting with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at his office in Athens on Friday.
They said the meeting allowed them to bring the problems they are facing to the prime minister’s attention, to ask for the immediate payment of compensation and to discuss a solution to the Lake Karla issue, following the effective return of the long-drained lake following flooding last September.
They also told the premier that agricultural cotton production must remain in the Thessalian Plain. Last week, a Dutch team tasked with drafting a master plan for the region recommended that it ditch water-intensive crops like cotton.
Mitsotakis told the farmers that his government has kept its promise and set in motion legislation to lower production costs for agriculture, which he described as an important intervention that ensures predictability for a significant cost factor for many farmers.
Regarding the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, he linked this with the upcoming European elections in three months, noting that the future of CAP will be one of the major issues that will be discussed in the campaign.
He predicted that a deeper discussion in the medium to long-term will be needed, regarding the speed at which the green transition is implemented and what this means in terms of the mid- and long-term future commitments and obligations of Greece’s farmers and livestock breeders. [AMNA]
