Special meeting on breakdown in payment of EU agricultural subsidies

The agricultural committee of the Saxon state parliament wants to deal with the breakdown around the delayed disbursement of EU funds on Wednesday at a special meeting. The meeting of the Committee for Energy, Climate Protection, Environment and Agriculture will be held in the morning under the title "Securing the direct payment in 2023 in the Free State of Saxony", the state parliament announced on Monday. Last Friday, the Saxon Ministry of Agriculture had conceded that, due to problems with the software adjustment, there would not be a payment in December as usual. Rather, the money - about 241 million euros for about 7000 farms - should be paid out no later than the end of February.

Agriculture Minister Wolfram Guenther (Greens) had called the delay "extremely regrettable and annoying." The farmers' association and also the AfD parliamentary group criticized the ministry. The farms would have to shoulder considerable expenses at the turn of the year, such as for leases, loans, seeds, pesticides and insurance, explained association vice president Hans-Uwe Heilmann. The economic pressure is already enormous. Saxony's FDP and the Free Voters called for the minister's dismissal.

The ministry had argued that the regulations on the EU's common agricultural policy had been fundamentally changed from 2023 and that there was a lack of IT specialists to make the software adjustments.