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Berlin / Dresden / Munich (dpa) - The federal and state agricultural ministers are faced with numerous expectations in the run-up to their special conference on Wednesday under the Saxon presidency.
At their last online consultation on the Common European Agricultural Policy (CAP) at the beginning of February, the ministers presented themselves at odds.
Bavaria's Agriculture Minister Michaela Kaniber (CSU) called on her Green counterparts on Tuesday not to block the implementation of the CAP reform.
«Colleagues shouldn't delay the further decision-making process with unrealistic demands.
We all want the Common Agricultural Policy to contribute to environmental and climate protection even more than before, ”emphasized Kaniber and called for better support for small-scale agriculture based on the Bavarian model.
Already today more than 50 percent of European agricultural funds in the 2nd pillar of the CAP - funds for the development of rural areas - are tied to ecological purposes.
The environmental protection organization WWF asked the conference to improve the draft laws submitted by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
"Otherwise politics will block the entry into sustainable German agriculture," said nature conservation director Christoph Heinrich.
The federal cabinet wants to approve the drafts on March 24th.
"In this way, Germany creates facts, although the framework legislative process for the CAP for national laws is still running at European level."
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WWF Germany suggested, among other things, that by the end of the funding period at least 75 percent of the funds of the previously flat-rate direct payments should be made available for funding measures that serve to protect the climate, species, animals and resources and contribute to fair conditions for farmers.
The proportion of so-called eco-schemes (payments for active environmental protection in agriculture) must initially make up at least 30 percent of the direct payments and then increase by five percent per year.
The industrial union building-agrarian-environment demanded from the federal and state governments to link EU agricultural subsidies to social standards.
Federal Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner (CDU) wants to implement the CAP into German law as quickly as possible.
It was said that important issues threatened to fall by the wayside.
"In addition to environmental and species protection aspects, politicians must also commit to fair wages and working conditions in agriculture," said the deputy IG BAU federal chairman, Harald Schaum.
The number of employees in agriculture has been increasing for years.
But many of them could hardly live on their wages.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210316-99-849494 / 2