By: Moja Dolenjska
Agricultural organisations will no longer participate in working groups examining legislative changes in the agricultural sector, as they believe the proposed changes only further tighten farming conditions and do not move in the right direction.
They will rejoin further discussions once they receive concrete responses from the Ministry of Agriculture to their demands. So far, there have only been a lot of nice words, but the actions are entirely different.
Dr Jože Podgoršek, President of the Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry of Slovenia (KGZS), stated: “Continuing work in the working groups currently no longer makes sense. Therefore, until some of our expectations are met, we will not participate in them. We have heard many positive statements from the Minister of Agriculture, who claims that the legislation aims to bring in more young farmers, reduce bureaucracy, increase local food production, protect agricultural land, and so on. However, unfortunately, these are merely well-crafted public messages, while the reality is entirely different.”
Dr Podgoršek emphasised that the situation in agriculture is significantly deteriorating, while the Ministry of Agriculture is further tightening farming conditions.
At the beginning of February, Minister Mateja Čalušić promised farmers access to analyses that formed the basis for the legislative changes, as well as their impact on different sectors. However, they have not yet received these in full. They also remain unaware of the key contents of secondary legislation, which is crucial for many legislative changes.
Boštjan Noč, President of the Slovenian Beekeepers’ Association, also stated that the organisations expect the ministry to clarify its position on the proposals prepared by agricultural organisations before negotiations on the legislation begin. They will resume negotiations once they receive answers to all their initiatives.
At the end of January, the Ministry of Agriculture, led by Mateja Čalušić (Svoboda), submitted draft laws on agriculture, food, food safety and feed, and animal health for public consultation. This consultation period is now coming to an end. In addition, the ministry has also submitted draft amendments to the laws on agricultural land and forests for public consultation.
Most of these laws were prepared in secrecy, without the involvement of key stakeholders in the agricultural sector. The legislation was reportedly drafted primarily by Eva Knez, the State Secretary – previously employed at Gen-I – and Brane Golubović, who is better known as the former political commissioner in the government of Marjan Šarec.
