Janusz Wojciechowski approved as the new EU agriculture commissioner

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In the next step, based on the candidate's assessment, the agriculture committee will formulate recommendations for the Conference of the Committee Chairs, which will make a decision on October 17. On October 23, at a plenary session in Strasbourg, a vote on the whole new European Commission will be held.

After the hearing, Janusz Wojciechowski underscored that he had received support from all political factions. "It's very important for my future role as the commissioner," he told journalists.

He argued that "agriculture policy has to be well-balanced, it has to consider different opinions, different values".

Referring to the previous hearing, Wojciechowski said that "there wasn't too much on competitiveness and innovation in agriculture". "I've drawn conclusions, some information was missing and the MEPs were waiting to hear about it," he added.

Asked if a switch to Polish language could have positively affected the outcome of the hearing, Wojciechowski said that "native tongue allows you to speak from the heart and gives you more confidence".

During the hearing, Wojciechowski said, among other things, that European farming has to be competitve in order to provide food safety for 500 million people, and that requires funding. "I will protect the strong and appropriate budget for agriculture and rural development, in order to create jobs that would secure decent living conditions," he declared.

He also added that he would support reducing unnecessary bureaucracy in farming, so that farmers could focus on land and livestock, rather than filling out forms.

Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, PAP