Czech farmers’ organisations plan to hold massive protests against the new Common Agricultural Policy on Thursday, the day Prague will host an informal meeting of EU agricultural ministers.

The protest will occur in front of the Congress Centre, where the ministers will meet and is organised by the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic and the Agricultural Union of the Czech Republic. The group will not be joined by small farmers who are happy with the new CAP rules, which they say favour family farms.

Since the start of the year, representatives of large farms have been protesting against the decision to shift a larger part of the subsidies to smaller farmers. They criticise the so-called redistribution, which is part of the Czech Strategic CAP plan.

The protests are also intended to draw attention to the impact of the Green Deal on agriculture, for example, the EU’s plan to reduce the use of pesticides. According to the organisers, farmers will be forced to cut production due to rising costs and EU environmental policy.

“If we accept the new policy of agricultural support distribution as planned by the current government and try at all costs to implement the ambitious goals of the Green Deal for Europe in such a short time until 2030, European food will become an expensive luxury that will definitely not be for everyone,” said Martin Pýcha, chairman of the Agricultural Union.

The event was supported by agricultural organisations from Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Lithuania and Romania.

“The Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic will present the memorandum of the agrarian chambers of the Visegrad Group countries to the EU agriculture ministers, who will be meeting in Prague at that time, and will also present it at a press conference,” added Jan Doležal, the Agrarian chamber’s president.

According to the Czech agriculture ministry, the long-term environmental objectives to which the organisations have reservations cannot be abandoned. (Aneta Zachová | EURACTIV.cz)