00:00Now, there's a lot to discuss when the EU agriculture ministers meet in Dublin today and tomorrow.
00:05Europe is recovering after a summer of heatwaves and droughts that have devastated crops and left many farmers facing huge
00:13financial losses.
00:14France has announced more than 1 billion euros in aid for farmers.
00:18So far, Brussels has said EU farmers can be compensated through flexibilities in their strategic plans and via state aid.
00:26Merit Gwynne sat down with the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Christoph Hansen, and started by asking him what more Brussels
00:33could do.
00:34Well, first of all, it has indeed been a very challenging summer and even the late spring was already in
00:40many regions heavily under pressure because of climate effects, because of drought, because of wildfires.
00:47And this is, of course, putting a lot of pressure because farmers are losing their harvests, partly at least.
00:53Then, of course, our farmers were as well our best line of defense or the first line of defense for
00:58wildfires, because with their tanks, with their machinery, they were on the spot to help our firefighters.
01:05And now comes, of course, the financial aspect of it.
01:08They have liquidity problems.
01:10And that is why we are helping them.
01:14I wrote a letter as well to the ministers in the beginning of this week to elaborate on the tools
01:19that we already have, that they can use advanced payments, for example, but as well derogations from certain obligations, because
01:26farmers can just not meet them under these conditions.
01:29And let's not forget, we presented before summer a fertiliser action plan where we made available 540 million euros, which
01:38can be topped up by the national budgets.
01:41This will be a first financial relief, but the situation is far from being over.
01:45You mention the liquidity problem, and this obviously comes when we also have a fertiliser and fuel cost crisis.
01:52It seems like there's a perfect storm here for farmers.
01:54Are you confident you're doing enough?
01:57Because there seems to be flexibilities in current programmes, but no new cash, which is what many farmers are calling
02:02for.
02:02The farmers know exactly that the cash is limited.
02:05We will, of course, have for the next year.
02:09We have the agricultural reserve, 450 million that we can use.
02:12I think we need as well to speak about solidarity in what is produced currently, because often the consumers want
02:20the perfect apple, the perfect potato.
02:22So this might not be the case this year.
02:24And as well, retailers expect a certain quality.
02:28And I think there we need to think differently as well to find new solutions so that the product can
02:33still be sold.
02:35That is a lot what can be done.
02:37A lot of additional money, of course, we know this is difficult.
02:41I have to ask you about the situation in Ukraine, because we know they are facing big difficulties exporting their
02:46grains due to increased Russian attacks on Black Sea infrastructure and ports.
02:52What can the EU do here to help find a solution for Kyiv?
02:57Well, of course, Ukraine is not the only one concerned, because in the end, they are as well heavily attacking
03:04Russian infrastructure, and that has an effect as well.
03:07But nonetheless, I think we have, meanwhile, an experience of helping Ukraine getting their grains to the world to get
03:15to their traditional markets.
03:17The solidarity lanes is one part of it, but I think we have as well to look into the Danube
03:24corridor, even though we know that waters have been quite down.
03:28If I may, on the solidarity lanes, because this has been a very political issue in the past.
03:33We know that the states have been protesting against this.
03:36Do you see room to expand those lanes?
03:38I think what needs to be avoided is that we had, during the autonomous trade measures, a temporary liberalization, and
03:46this liberalization led to disruptions, led to a price decrease, and as well leakage of grains, for example, that were
03:55supposed to go through Europe, but not to leak into the market.
03:59I think we have, meanwhile, as well, very clear experience what went wrong back in time, and this needs to
04:06be addressed for future exports of Ukraine through Europe, but that is not meant for the European market.
