Brussels, 29 June 2012 – The Prime Minister of Estonia Andrus Ansip, the Prime Minister of Latvia Valdis Dombrovskis and the President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė met with the President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso earlier today.
At the meeting, the Baltic leaders expressed their support for the European Union’s long-term budget plan, but emphasised the need to treat the farmers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on an equal basis with other countries.
“We want our farmers to be treated equally,” said Prime Minister Andrus Ansip. “There is nothing that justifies the differences in the level of direct subsidies, which are huge.”
The other topic discussed at the meeting, were the amount of cohesion policy funds in the new budget period. The Baltic leaders all agreed that the funds allocated in the next period must not be reduced.
The investments already made with cohesion policy funds have been undisputedly justified. For example, 24% of the workforce in Estonia, or 166,216 people, have received advice about finding jobs or support for retraining from European Union funds. The number of persons participating in the so-called lifelong learning has also doubled. All these steps have helped people adapt in difficult times and take part in retraining.
The President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz, who had a meeting with Estonian producers, also understood the situation of Estonian farmers.