Ljubljana/Višegrad - Representatives of the agriculture ministries of Visegrad Group countries plus Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovenia continued on Friday their dialogue from last September. They also signed a joint declaration pledging to cooperate on the future development of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

On behalf of Slovenia, the meeting in Budapest was attended by Agriculture Ministry State Secretary Aleš Irgolič, the ministry said in a press release.

The participants discussed topical issues such as sustainable carbon cycles, the process of evaluating and approving the strategic plans of the CAP, sustainable food supply and short food supply chains.

They also signed the declaration committing themselves to work together on advancing the policy.

Slovenia noted that a swift response from the European Commission was crucial for the fastest and smoothest possible approval of the strategic plans.

Irgolič outlined the distribution of direct payments under the climate and environment scheme and the way to achieve the objectives of the Farm to Fork strategy. He added that Slovenia was also dedicated to organic farming in the new programming period.

During a discussion on the role of agriculture and soil protection in efforts to achieve climate neutrality, he said that in the new strategic plan Slovenia planned to incentivise efforts to step up carbon sequestration.

Slovenia is also striving to reduce methane emissions, he said, highlighting that in order to increase the involvement of farmers in sustainable carbon cycles, various factors needed to be taken into account, including farmer-friendly policies.

The positive effects of short supply chains were also discussed, with Irgolič pointing out that 80% of all agricultural produce in Slovenia was bought and sold through cooperatives. There is still a lot of room for strengthening short chains in this area, he added.