18
Dec
2024
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Challenges facing EU farmers and agricultural workers: improving working conditions, including their mental well-being (debate)
Yes, I accept, of course, as many deputies do here, that the issue of red tape is one that has to be tackled in the context of the upcoming common agricultural policy. I have no doubt that it, in its own right, makes a contribution towards this issue in relation to the mental health and wellbeing of farmers and their families. It's incumbent on us to engage in that process that is the common agricultural policy, to ensure that you engage with your stakeholders, with representatives and with your own communities, in order to ensure that you are well informed in your representations to the Commissioner, to the Parliament, to the Council; in order to ensure that a common agricultural policy is not just specifically about funding farmers and supplementing their income, but is about helping them in many other ways, including in relation to the issue of red tape, which was very dominant during the course of the election campaign in my own country and, I am sure, in yours. We have a duty and a responsibility to improve that and to improve it in a way in which, in turn, restricts the amount of capability that there is amongst this red tape to impact on people's and farmers' mental health.