Commissioner says no 'sackful of money' to help EU farmers in pandemic

EU farmers’ worst fears were confirmed this week when Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski admitted there is no “sackful of money” he can dip into, in response to calls from farmers, farmers’ organisations, and the Member States, to deploy pandemic market intervention measures as quickly as possible.

“These are legitimate expectations, and if the Commission had a sackful of money, it would dip into it straight away. However, we are in the last year of the current financial framework, and there is no such sack,” he told members of the European Parliament Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, in a videoconference speech.