As part of its efforts to secure EU membership for the Western Balkans, the German government is sending an agricultural attaché to the region for the first time to help implement often highly technical EU legislation. in this domain.
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During a five-day trip to North Macedonia, Kosovo and Moldova, German Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir announced on Tuesday October 3 the appointment of the new attaché.
“The establishment of an agricultural attaché in this region is a first,” he declared. The newly created position is supposed to help “represent German economic interests and provide greater support for the Western Balkan states’ accession process to the EU.”
Based at the German Embassy in Skopje, the new attaché will represent the ministry and its policies “in North Macedonia as well as other Western Balkan countries,” the ministry said.
These attachés in foreign embassies represent Germany’s interests in commercial and technical areas while serving as contacts for the host country.
Practical support
Since coming to power, Germany’s tripartite government has repeatedly called for the Western Balkan states to join the EU quickly.
In May, for example, Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on the EU to keep its promises to countries in the region in a speech to the European Parliament, while Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also repeatedly called for progress in the accession process.
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia are candidates for EU membership, and Kosovo is a potential candidate. However, even if some of them have been in the accession process for decades, progress was slow.
While Scholz and Baerbock’s calls are more aimed at the political blockades that stand in the way of many Western Balkan states’ accession, Özdemir’s pressure is on a more practical level.
Adapting to extensive and sometimes very complex European legislation in the agricultural sector is difficult to manage for many countries, both technically and in terms of human resources. At the same time, agriculture is of great economic importance for many Western Balkan countries.
The new attaché is expected to support this technical process, building on the cooperation between the German Ministry of Agriculture and the agricultural ministries of the Western Balkan countries, which started in 2014 as part of the policy dialogue agricultural.
“The agricultural and food sector is of great economic and social importance in all Western Balkan countries and plays a leading role in the EU accession negotiations,” Özdemir emphasized.
Countering Russian influence
But this increased cooperation also aims to push back Russian influence in the region.
“We must not allow Russia to expand its influence and further threaten the European peace order,” Özdemir said.
“Agricultural policy, as an instrument, can make a decisive contribution to strengthening and expanding ties between our states,” he added.
According to the minister, it is Germany’s tangible economic interests that are at stake. “A prerequisite for German economic exports is political stability in the region.”
At the same time, Germany is also working to prepare EU agricultural policy for the accession of Moldova, Georgia and, above all, agricultural heavyweight Ukraine. Moldova and Ukraine are already candidates for membership.
The accession of several countries with large agricultural sectors could upend the EU’s multibillion-euro agricultural subsidy program, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
According to an internal EU study, cited by Financial Timesthe accession of eight or nine new members “would reduce all existing agricultural subsidies by around 20%”.
To ensure that CAP subsidies remain affordable even after more farms join the EU, the German government is advocating the abandonment of so-called direct payments, which are paid only based on the agricultural area of the holding.
Instead, Berlin is pushing for certain public services, such as environmental or climate protection, to be rewarded.
(Editing by Gerardo Fortuna/Zoran Radosavljevic)