MEPs from the European Parliament’s Committees on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) and Regional Development (REGI) do not want the money earmarked for the Common Agricultural Policy or Cohesion Policy to be used for defence, said PNL MEP Daniel Buda, Vice-Chair of the AGRI Committee, in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

The MEP from the European People’s Party (EPP) group in the EP said he understands the need for an efficient defence system at EU level and agrees that „it is truly unacceptable for the US to pay from taxpayers’ money for what security and peace at EU level mean”.

Daniel Buda also said, during a briefing for Romanian journalists, that he also understands why EC President Ursula von der Leyen came up with the proposal for the European rearmament plan, ReArm Europe.

„Yes, we want to spend somewhere around 800 billion euros on defence, of which 150 billion euros is money that is not used from various areas of cohesion and beyond,” Buda declared.

On the other hand, he stressed, „we, those of us in the Committee on Regional Development and the Committee on Agriculture (and Rural Development), have made it very clear that we do not want this money that is intended for Cohesion Policy to be used in the area of armaments. We can accept the construction of civilian capabilities that have a dual use, in particular in peacetime to be used by the civilian population, and in wartime to be used eminently to strengthen the defense system that you have at the national level”.

„Just as we reject from the outset the use of any financial resources from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the armament system, because we have a very clear vision and very much anchored in reality. Today, food security must be guaranteed, because it is as important, if not, I would say, more important than military security, because without food you cannot live. The agricultural sector is currently in a rather complicated and delicate situation, so we do not need any additional pressure for this policy”, the vice-chair of the EP AGRI Committee also said.

To make his position known, he and other members of the AGRI and REGI committees supported two amendments by the Greens and the Left group which underline that the structural funds are vital for the development of local communities in the Member States, call on the Commission and the Council not to allow these funds to be used for other purposes, such as the purchase of arms and the financing of military expenditure, and express their opposition to any reorientation of the common agricultural policy and the cohesion funds, both in terms of volume and political objectives.

Ultimately, the two amendments to the resolution adopted by the EP on the future White Paper on Defence did not pass following Wednesday’s vote, but the PNL MEP claims that this is not important, even though even the group he belongs to – the EPP, the largest in the EP – replied that it did not want to include references to either the Common Agricultural Policy or the Cohesion Funds in the text.

„We are interested in this position of the Parliament being received adequately by the European Commission. Because we are discussing some visions that may differ, these amendments that are submitted to Parliament will be supported by us in such a way as to give a message, a very clear alarm signal that we do not want this money to be used, I repeat, for the armaments area or for any other objectives. Unfortunately, the European Commission, over time, has used financial resources from both Cohesion and the Common Agricultural Policy,” he explained before the vote.

AGERPRES