Vienna (OTS) – “Ukraine has 42 million hectares of agricultural land. With Ukraine joining the EU, the EU's agricultural area would suddenly increase by almost a quarter. This would drive small producers like the ones we have in Austria out of the market”, liberal agricultural spokesman NAbg explained today. Peter Schmiedlechner.
“And the form of agriculture is also very far from our ideals. These are not small-scale family businesses. Industrial agriculture is common in Ukraine. Huge animal factories, endless monocultures and so on. I don’t think our consumers want this!”, explained Schmielechner. “The Ukrainian production method – with low environmental and animal welfare standards – also means low production costs and therefore low sales prices. How should our farms keep up? It can be assumed that this would mean the end 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 until now have been kept secret,” the Freedom Party said and continued: “Ukraine could then expect around €96.5 billion in agricultural aid alone EU 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. That would change at once!”
“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, neither politically nor economically, and for the peasantry in Austria – it would be a death sentence for our agriculture”, emphasized Schmiedlechner.
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