Demonstrations Against Reform of EU Sugar Subsidies in Germany

js. In July, sugar beet farmers demonstrated in 50 cities across Germany against the plans of the European Commission to cut sugar subsidies. The EU is following WTO’s demands for an opening of the European sugar market to worldwide imports. The farmers were joined by refinery employees with whistles and banners who released 70,000 balloons calling on the German government to drop its support for the reform.

“The EU plan would mean the end for 46,000 sugar beet farmers and threaten more than 26,000 employees in the sugar and related industries,” said the president of the German food industry union NGG, Franz-Josef Moellenberg, at a demonstration in Heilbronn. “The EU groundlessly puts farmers’ existence at stake”, could be read on a banner at a demonstration in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg showing an angry sugar beet.

The EU plans to slash the guaranteed price for sugar by 39 percent and 42.6 percent for sugar beets over a two-year period beginning in 2007.

More than 6,000 sugar beet farmers from the 21 EU countries that grow sugar beets gathered in Brussels on Monday 18 July at a demonstration against the reforms.

“It isn’t possible to artificially maintain the price of sugar at a level three times higher than on the world market,” German Agricultural Minister Renate Kuenast said. Kuenast, a long-time supporter of reform, told the crowd, “I understand your concerns, but reforms will happen. Farmers must show that they can cope responsibly with tax money”.

The question is who is showing that they can cope responsibly with local farming products?