
Is Brussels Yielding to Pressure on Common Agricultural Policy?
Italian Commissioner Raffaele Fitto has signaled openness to changes in the proposed EU budget.

Italian Commissioner Raffaele Fitto has signaled openness to changes in the proposed EU budget.

“The intention is for all funds to be subjected to what is euphemistically termed ‘conditionality’… no sovereign nation should accept such an arrangement.”

According to a leaked budget proposal, the Commission decided to ignore the demands of 20 member states and over 6,000 farmers’ organizations asking for an independent CAP.

More than 3,000 farmers’ groups and 20 member states opposed the planned budget reforms, forcing the Commission to seek alternative ways to cut agricultural subsidies by about 20%.

If von der Leyen succeeds, spending would be tied to economic reforms, where member states could be required to address gender disparities to qualify for social housing funds and promote organic farming to access agricultural subsidies.

Farmers’ organizations and right-wing parties in the EU parliament have been protesting this budget merger for months, but the Commission refuses to listen.

Unsurprisingly, the Tusk-appointed new budget commissioner said Budapest’s anti-corruption reforms were “not quite what we were hoping for.”

Von der Leyen’s latest power grab merges departments under her control and ties EU funds to ideologically-biased conditions.

‘Strings attached’ will be the norm for Brussels pay-outs.

The issue of affordable housing is normally the competence of member states, but Brussels’ overreach apparently knows no limits.