Three weeks ago, according to the police, farmers with at least 1,000 tractors demonstrated against EU policy in Brussels.
Across the European Union, farmers are rising up against the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which subsidizes them. Governments are responding with adjustment measures, bureaucratic simplifications and a few words of comfort. In reality, they are powerless in the face of a structure designed to apply an ideology that is proving to be insane.
The despair and anger of Europe's farmersAcross Western and Central Europe, farmers are demonstrating. First in the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland and Romania, now in Spain, France, Germany and Poland. This continent-wide uprising is against the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
When the Treaty of Rome establishing the European Economic Community was signed in 1957, the six founding member states (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany) accepted the principle of the free movement of goods. They thus prohibited any national agricultural policy.
To guarantee farmers' incomes, they set up a common agricultural policy. Depending on the Member State, EU aid is paid to the regions, which then distribute it to farmers or directly to farmers (as in France). This is known as the "First Pillar". In addition, the European Commission sets production standards to improve the quality of life of rural populations and their products. This is the "Second Pillar".
Comment: The headline should have read "New Zealand decides overt nanny-state fascism maybe isn't such a good idea". Let people decide for themselves what they will and won't consume.
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