Upon exiting a meeting with Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Maximos Mansion in Athens on Monday, a delegation of farmers from the region of Thessaly, central Greece, said no substantial progress had been made regarding the timelines for finalizing the compensations for the damage to farmland caused in 2023 due to “Storm Daniel” floods.
During the meeting, Mitsotakis recognized that many of the farmers’ demands were reasonable, stating: “We agree that many of the farmers’ demands are fair,” adding that his government was making efforts to meet them as best it could.
The 15-member delegation headed by the president of the Unified Federation of Agricultural Associations of Larissa, Rizos Maroudas, requested that there should be no change in land use in Thessaly and said achieving this goal was imperative.
Maroudas stated there was no update on the master plan presented by a Dutch company, aimed at establishing a holistic approach to managing the water resources of Thessaly which would impact agricultural production.
The Greek farmers, who held a series of protests at the end of February, reiterated their main demands which included, compensation and restoration efforts to urgent flood defenses, rapid action on income reimbursement, the reduction of production costs, as well as matters related to Greece’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and restoration projects.
CAP is a policy focusing on sustainable development, environmental care, and biodiversity in the EU but emerged as a major issue of contention between farmers across the continent as they consider it seriously affected their livelihood.
Mitsotakis said his government still had “a lot of work” to do adding: “I understand that since our previous meeting, the discussion has progressed, taking into account the views of our farmers and livestock breeders regarding the return of the Single Payment Scheme for agricultural diesel.”
