“We wish each and every one of them good work in the interest of the community”, declared the man from Bitonno Gennaro Sicolo, president of CIA Puglia and national vice-president of the important farmers’ trade union organisation. “Agriculture, the sector that we care most about and one of the driving sectors of the regional economy, needs greater and better calibrated attention in Europe and in the connection between European institutions, national ones and local administrations. The hope is that the elected representatives will work on the proposals that we have illustrated to all the candidates through our ‘Manifesto towards a strategic plan for agriculture and that they will team up with and for Puglia'”, added Sicolo. “Best wishes and good work, therefore, to the six Apulians elected to the European Parliament: Antonio Decaro, Francesco Ventola, Michele Picaro, Chiara Gemma, Valentina Palmisano and Mario Furore”.
“The policies of the European Union have a strong impact on the economy of the territories, especially as regards agriculture. This is why we presented the requests of the farmers and the proposals developed by CIA Agricoltori Italiani to the candidates for the European Parliament to try to reverse the route compared to the policies of recent years which have penalized agriculture, slowing down its development and preventing its concrete revival. We ask for respect and attention for farmers who are the first and most important guardians of the environment we discussed agreed on the need to relaunch the sector, making commitments regarding their work as European parliamentarians. The hope is that those commitments will now be followed by facts”.
In 9 points, the programmatic platform of CIA Farmers addresses all the most urgent issues: the value of the products recognized to producers affected by strong imbalances along the supply chain; the valorisation and competitiveness of rural areas; measures that prevent land consumption to the detriment of agriculture; the water resource. And, again, the protection of Italian and European products from unfair competition from third countries; the strengthening of the resources that the European budget must allocate to the sector; a CAP agreed from below and no longer an enemy of farmers; the chapter on innovation, research and training; a strong investment in young people as the future of agriculture.
