Spain Leads European Strategy To Prevent Crop And Livestock Farmers From Suffering After Brexit

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez travelled to Cantabria to visit the Altamira Caves and the ‘Jesús Collado Soto’ National Cattle Market in Torrelavega. Following a tour with the town’s mayor, José Manuel Cruz, the Prime Minister informed Cantabrian farmers about the Spanish strategy to defend a strong Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Europe based on the demand that crop and livestock farmers should not pay the consequences of Brexit.

​Prime Minister Sánchez stressed that Spain is leading this strategy, for which 20 European countries have already expressed support, and that work formally began on the National Strategic Plan for application of the CAP in Spain during the period 2021-2027 on February 25.

This is a participatory process in which both public authorities and all sectors of civil society should play a major role. Sánchez said that the CAP negotiations include “the challenge of converting the obvious into the standard” so that crop, livestock and woodland farmers can make a living and obtain decent prices, as well as maintain their business.

Sánchez explained that the agri-food sector is one of strategic importance in tackling some of the greatest challenges being faced by Spain, such as climate change, food security and the threat of depopulation.

In Sánchez’ opinion, “the future of European and Spanish farming needs an ambitious and realistic European agricultural policy” that should be based on three fundamental things: environmental sustainability; social sustainability, which is directly related to the demographic challenge; and innovation and competitiveness, which would require closing the digital gap and achieving progress in the digitalisation and modernisation of the rural environment.