On 16 August, at the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), the European Commission (EC) Representation in Latvia and the EC Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development presented the EC's new proposals for the EU multiannual budget from 2028 to non-governmental organisations representing farmers, food producers, fishers and the forest sector, to MoA experts and to others. As already reported, immediately after this proposal was made public, Minister for Agriculture Armands Krauze sharply objected to the EC's proposals, calling them wholly unacceptable, since they threaten Latvia's agriculture, fisheries and food production sectors in the very near future: they envisage cutting EU support funding for agriculture by a quarter and for fisheries by as much as two thirds compared with the present level. Moreover, this proposal includes neither the equalisation of direct payments nor additional support for rural regions on the EU's eastern border.

Minister for Agriculture Armands Krauze: “Together with other Member States, our goal is to increase or at least maintain funding for agriculture and fisheries in the 2028–2034 period at its current level, given the difficult economic conditions in the sector and their impact on prices and on consumers. It is also unacceptable to us that the EC plans to fold the reduced support for farmers and fishers into — in effect, to hide it within — a single plan alongside other sectors, leaving agriculture and fisheries without clear and protected EU funding for one of the most important support measures in these geopolitically difficult times, measures aimed at securing the population's food supply and the viability of rural regions.”

The MoA has already reported that, under this unacceptable proposal, the EC currently plans to create a single National and Regional Partnership (NRP) plan and fund for the next multiannual financial period, within which CAP and CFP funding would sit as separate parts. Alongside these, the plan and fund would also cover regional cohesion, migration, border management, internal security and social policy. The main conditions and the level of funding for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) would be set out in the single NRP framework, but funding is to be ring-fenced for only some of the stated agricultural and rural development and fisheries policy objectives. At present, the CAP and the CFP and the funds intended to implement them (the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, and the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund) exist as two separate EU policies, each with its own objectives, funding, legislation and planning documents.