Finnish Minister of Agriculture continues lobbying for future subsidies

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Even though the talks with the European Commission on the Article 141 support for Finnish farmers are still far from finished, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Sirkka-Liisa Anttila (Centre Party) is already prepared to start lobbying efforts for future issues relating to the agricultural sector.
      "The importance of advance lobbying efforts is greater than ever", commented Anttila in Brussels on Monday.
     
Anttila was not willing to say whether or not Finland should have started earlier its lobbying to maintain the agricultural subsidies that it provides to farmers in the south of Finland.
      Minister Anttila and the European Commissioner for Agriculture Mariann Fischer Boel are to continue their Article 141 talks in Brussels today - Tuesday.
      On Monday, the Commission suggested that Finland should cut down on the national subsidies more than proposed earlier.
      Last week Anttila and Fischer Boel agreed that Finland would be allowed to continue paying Article 141 support to farmers in the south of Finland even next year. The amount of the subsidies was agreed to be EUR 93.0 million, while the schedule of the phasing out of the support was to be discussed this week.
      The subsidies, paid for by Finland, are based on Article 141 of the Finnish Treaty of Accession into the European Union. Commissioner Boel has been pushing for the end of the subsidies, which she says were intended only as an interim solution.
     
Finland has started looking for allies with respect to future conflicts relating to agricultural issues. According to Anttila, suitable partners can be found at least in the south.
      Some form of cooperation has already been set up with Italy. The country’s southern farmers have problems which evoke sympathy in Finland.
      Even France, Germany, Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania may have views which are appropriate to the policy pursued by Finland.
      The French Minister for Agriculture will visit Finland this winter.
      The European Commission has just launched a so-called Health Check in order to streamline the Union’s Common Agricultural Policy.
     
Preliminary talks on the reforms will be held in the course of the upcoming spring, which is why the member states should establish their respective positions on the issue soon.
      For Finland it is important that domestic milk production will continue and that the production-based financial support can be paid even in the future.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Nordic partners stop lobbying against Finnish agricultural subsidies (23.11.2007)
  EU Commissioner for Agriculture: Finland’s temporary 141-Support cannot continue forever (29.10.2007)

Links:
  European Commission: Agricultural and Rural Development

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