Caucik: Minister Takac Has Deprived Slovak Farmers of More Than Billion Euros

Bratislava, 4 July (TASR) - Agriculture Minister Richard Takac (Smer-SD) has deprived Slovak farmers of more than one billion euros that could have been used by farmers, food producers and foresters for proper rural development, said opposition MP Marian Caucik (Christian Democratic Movement/KDH) at a press conference on Friday, adding that Takac should stop blaming previous governments for problems and examine his own failures at the ministry. According to Caucik, Takac failed to take action against foot-and-mouth disease in Slovakia. When compared to the other V4 countries, Slovakia was the worst affected country right after Hungary, he said, adding that no measures had been implemented to actually prevent the disease. He went on to criticise the high costs of combating this disease, which amounted to over €100 million, while the Czech Republic spent only €3 million. Another issue mentioned was the drought that has affected vast parts of Slovakia this year and will have a further impact on silage and haylage for livestock. According to the opposition MP, the minister has taken no action in this area and has announced zero calls to deal with the consequences of the drought, resulting in Slovakia losing €50 million. Caucik stated that the ministry has long had problems related to the Common Agricultural Policy, and he highlighted that Minister Takac announced calls totalling to only 4.03 percent of available funds from October 2023 to the end of June of this year. According to the opposition MP, the minister is also unable to account for the use of funds for the new period of 2023-2027. "The allocated available resources for 2023 exceeded €260 million. And how many calls have been announced? None at all," added Caucik, stating that the minister owes Slovak farmers more than €700 million. In total, all these items amount to over €1 billion, he said. lin/df