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Empowering farmers and rural communities - a dialogue towards sustainable and fairly rewarded EU agriculture (debate)
The agricultural sector needs the EU as much as the EU needs the agricultural sector and sustainable agriculture. Socialists recognise the strategic nature of this sector for the EU and are convinced that maintaining the agricultural fabric and the profitability of farms are necessary conditions for further progress in the transition towards greater sustainability, including in this sector. We want real reciprocity in production conditions inside and outside the EU. In our view, this is unfair competition, as everyone within the EU is subject to the same production rules as required by the CAP. We are aware of the malaise of the sector, which is due to multiple causes, national or European depending on each Member State, but which has a common denominator in the low prices of the first link in the chain that do not cover production costs. In this debate we have reiterated that we are listening to the sector and we have denounced loud and clear the regrettable electoral instrumentalization that the right and the extreme right are doing of the malaise of farmers and ranchers and their difficulties.