SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, July 5. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Government of the Canary Islands, Alicia Vanoostende, held a working meeting today in Brussels with the Director General of Sustainability of the Directorate General of Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission, Pierre Bascou, to address the reconstruction of the primary sector on the island of La Palma.
Specifically, the meeting has served to address the reconstruction studies of the banana areas buried by the lava promoted by the autonomous department together with the sector, in addition to explaining the current roadmap regarding the primary sector of La Palma, with special attention to the joint work between administrations to guarantee Posei aid to the banana sector.
“We have explained what our work strategy is and the measures that we have promoted from the beginning, among which compensation for loss of production, irrigation works or this feasibility study stand out,” he said.
AID FOR THE LIVESTOCK SECTOR
Another of the main axes of the meeting affected the increase in the costs of livestock production that weighs down the profitability of farms on the islands. In this line, Vanoostende stressed the importance of “modifying different European operational programs to provide extraordinary aid to the livestock sector through POSEI or the Rural Development Plan, issues that we are working on with the European Commission so that in the coming months we can grant these extraordinary subsidies to the livestock sector to offset the impact of the increase in production costs”.
He also pointed out that, during this year, “extraordinary aid has been granted through the Covid temporary framework, and from here, we have several ways to work, among which the Ukrainian aid framework stands out, with the possibility of using own funds of the Canary Islands or the State, and the aid contemplated in the POSEI, with the specific modification of 20% to improve these funds for farmers”.
The regional head of the area “showed her satisfaction with the sensitivity of the Commission, since they know the reality of the Canary Islands, and of La Palma in particular. We have a good defense of the outermost regions in Europe. We must continue working together to find solutions; any crisis that affects Europe is exacerbated in the ORs”.
