Vienna (OTS) – “Ukraine has 42 million hectares of agricultural land. With Ukraine’s accession to the EU, the EU’s agricultural area would suddenly increase by almost a quarter. This would push small producers like we have in Austria out of the market,” explained the liberal agricultural spokesman NAbg today. Peter Schmiedlechner.
“And the form of agriculture is also far removed from our ideals. They are not small-scale family businesses. Industrial agriculture is common in Ukraine. Large animal factories, endless monocultures and so on. I don’t think our consumers want this!” explained Schmielechner. “The Ukrainian production method – with low animal welfare and environmental standards – also means low production costs and therefore low sales prices. How are our farms supposed to keep up? You can assume that this would mean the demise of domestic production in Austria,” said the FPÖ agricultural spokesman.
“If Ukraine were admitted to the European Union, the country would suddenly be by far the biggest beneficiary of EU agricultural policy, according to the internal calculations of the Council of the European Union. The ‘Financial Times’ was the first to report on the calculations, which have so far been kept under wraps,” the Freedom Party stated and continued: “Ukraine could then expect around 96.5 billion euros in EU agricultural aid alone within seven years. The country would therefore use around a quarter of the EU budget for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the period 2021 to 2027. So far, France is the biggest beneficiary with a share of 17 percent. This would change in one fell swoop!”
“From the FPÖ and also from the liberal peasantry there is a clear no to Ukraine’s accession to the EU. This country is not there yet. Accession would be fatal, not politically, not economically, and for the peasantry in Austria – that would be a death knell for our agriculture,” emphasized Schmiedlechner.
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