Sánchez announces measures to address the challenge of generational renewal in the countryside and calls for 10% of the CAP to be allocated

Madrid – The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has announced the launch of a package of measures to promote the “urgent” challenge of generational renewal in Spanish agriculture and livestock farming, with the creation of “Tierra Joven”, a platform for information and mobilization of agricultural land, while at the same time proposing that the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) allocate 10% of its resources to generational renewal in the agricultural sector.

“The Government is going to decisively support young people who want to choose this path, giving them every facility and opportunity to apply their talent and to undertake. Bringing young people into this sector is worthwhile for us as a country, because they are the present and the future of our countryside,” said Sánchez, who reiterated the need to give the “highest priority” to this “urgent” and “necessary” challenge of generational renewal in rural areas.

He announced this during the closing of the event presenting the measures to facilitate young people’s access to agricultural activity, held at the iHub La Vega Innova, in San Fernando de Henares (Madrid), which was attended by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas.

Sánchez, who met with young farmers and livestock breeders, recalled that 40% of the holders of agricultural holdings in Spain are over 65 years of age and only 9% are under 41, a “phenomenon common to many other neighboring countries”, and stressed that the motivation behind the Strategy for Generational Renewal in Agriculture, driven by the Commission, has set the objective of doubling the proportion of young farmers in the EU by 2040.

“When young people join this sector, there are more productive farms, more added value, more employment, more innovation and more sustainability,” he emphasized.

Mobilization of 17,000 state-owned rural properties

Among the measures announced by the President of the Government, the mobilization of agricultural land owned by the State also stands out, which he put at around 17,000 rural properties, to make them available to young people through the “Tierra Joven” platform. “This is a measure similar to what we have done in housing policy, where we have told all the Ministries to look at what land they have in order to make it available for a common cause, such as the construction of housing,” he specified.

Sánchez announced that a process of dialogue will be opened with the autonomous communities, with the sector and with all stakeholders to agree on a model that facilitates young people’s access to this land.

“We are going to lead by example, we are not going to stand aside from this challenge, because we are going to lead this platform by pooling these properties, giving preference to young people and women, so that this land can be turned into projects that generate jobs and economic activity,” he stressed.

Among the measures announced by the Government, the launch of the “Tierra Joven” platform stands out, which aims to tackle the “major obstacle” to the effective incorporation of young people into the agricultural sector, namely access to land.

This Platform for Information and Mobilization of Agricultural Land, which will be led by the Ministry of Agriculture, in collaboration with the sector, the autonomous communities and other ministries involved, will make it possible to disseminate supply and demand, and will offer homogeneous, transparent and unified information on the agricultural land market in Spain.

As he explained, it will be launched “immediately” during the first months of the year, with the approval of a royal decree regulating its contents, and it will be consolidated in the future Family Farming Law, with the creation of an Office for Information and Transfer of Agricultural Land, similar to those that exist in other countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Belgium or Poland.

Allocating 10% of the CAP to generational renewal

In addition, the Government is going to propose that the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) allocate 10% of its resources to generational renewal, well above the 6% proposed by the European Commission.

“Spain is defending that the EU budget should be 2% of the available gross national income. We are very much alone because there are many governments that, under that false argument of the renationalization of competences and a false recovery of sovereignty, are actually weakening the EU budget. We must advocate a pro-European discourse; the EU budgets must be larger because the challenges are increasingly greater and more pressing,” argued Sánchez.

Spain will not allow the CAP to be weakened

The President of the Government reiterated that the CAP “is and must continue to be one of the best legacies of the European project and is, above all, an investment in security and sovereignty.” “Those who advocate the renationalization of EU policies must know that the CAP is the first common European policy and pro-European governments, such as that of Spain, will never allow the CAP to be weakened,” he stressed.

“I insist on a budget that necessarily has to be larger and that must represent 2%, because there are governments that are advocating 5% for other things, so let us defend 2% for the EU budget,” he stated during his speech.

The President of the Government also recalled the 40th anniversary of Spain’s accession to the European Union, which has served to “make progress, modernize, build social and territorial cohesion thanks to funds that unfortunately are now being called into question, due to the proposal that has been made by the European Commission, such as the Cohesion Funds or the CAP.” (14 January)