In Hungary, where this summer’s harvests are coming in 10 to 20 percent below the five-year average, the agriculture ministry said the tools simply haven’t kept up with the changing climate. Emergency aid and insurance need rebuilding for a hotter Europe, the ministry said in a statement, with more EU money behind them, so farmers get help “faster and more predictably.”
Together with six other countries in the dry belt, Hungary backed a declaration in June demanding a list of changes to the emergency fund’s successor.
Those countries — Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania — want it to cover weather damage; pay out when a farmer loses a fifth of a crop rather than a third; and provide the money before the paperwork clears. As things stand, they wrote, “relief comes too late.”
Commissioner Hansen wants the money to go toward longer-term solutions, rather than purely padding out farmers’ losses. Ideas include irrigation and water infrastructure to blunt the damage and an insurance push with the European Investment Bank so that bad years are covered by premiums rather than emergency funds.
But “we will never find enough money,” he said, unless richer EU countries put more into the bloc’s joint budget. So far, those countries are pushing for the pot to be reduced instead.
Spending strategy split
Not all countries suffering drought are in favor of easier access to emergency cash.
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