In Strasbourg, during the European Parliament’s final plenary session of the year, a debate was held on the challenges facing farmers and agricultural workers in the EU. It focused in particular on improving working conditions, including their mental well-being. PiS MEPs Waldemar Buda, Jadwiga Wiśniewska, and Anna Zalewska took part in the discussion.
Waldemar Buda expressed his surprise at the debate’s focus on farmers’ mental health, given that the European Commission had just finalized negotiations on a partnership agreement with Mercosur that is disadvantageous to them. He noted that the agreement includes numerous concessions regarding access for agri-food products from Mercosur to the EU market. “Today, farmers are struggling with the profitability of agricultural production, while Spanish-language news sites are reporting on Brazil’s great success, as it is already preparing to ship frozen food to Europe,” he noted. “This is why farmers today are worried and in poor mental health,” the Polish politician pointed out, adding that the Commission is withholding the details of this agreement from farmers. “We cannot delude ourselves into thinking that, in a situation where poultry and beef in Brazil are half the price, they won’t flood into European countries,” he noted. “We have to stop this, because we’re not going to sacrifice Polish agriculture for Volkswagens,” Buda stated, referring to Germany’s desire to trade cars manufactured there with Mercosur countries. “Polish farmers aren’t going to die for Volkswagens,” he commented.
Jadwiga Wiśniewska drew attention to the problems farmers face: they work beyond their limits and are under constant stress. She pointed to natural disasters, bureaucratic burdens, a maze of regulations in which “even experts get lost,” as well as loans they are unable to repay, fluctuations in agricultural markets, delays in subsidy payments, pressure from banks, and the need for large investments. “Farmers cannot withstand the pressure, and the high suicide rate is therefore not surprising,” said the MEP.
She noted that during the election campaign, European politicians lured farmers with promises to revise the Green Deal, but today, instead of easing the burden, they are announcing an acceleration and intensification of “green madness.” “The final nail in the coffin of European agriculture is von der Leyen’s signing of the agreement with Mercosur, in which you traded away farmers’ interests and citizens’ health and safety for the profits of German car manufacturers,” stated the Polish politician. “Stop pretending to care about farmers, because it is your policy that is pushing them to the brink of mental breakdown, and it is because of this policy that they are taking their own lives out of desperation,” she appealed to the European Commission, urging it to finally change this.
Anna Zalewska argued that the Green Deal, bureaucracy, uncertainty, unattainable ambitions and goals, and the negative portrayal of farmers in the media are responsible for the plight of European farmers. “European farmers are shouldering the responsibility for Europe’s ideas and concepts regarding climate change,” she pointed out. “Farmers live in a state of immense uncertainty because, in addition to a lack of financial resources and workers, they are forced to hire lawyers and accountants just to navigate European bureaucracy,” said the Polish politician.
She also noted that European farmers face a lack of understanding and are often told that their work is pointless, “because why should they farm the land when crops and goods can be imported from Ukraine or Mercosur, or when the land can be converted to renewable energy?” “We’ve infected European agriculture. They need peace,” commented the PiS MEP.
