No money to pay higher subsidies to farmers claims German CDU member

Edmund Stoiber, a candidate of the German conservative coalition CDU/CSU in the parliamentary elections in September, yesterday said he supported the European Commission's (EC) proposal to gradually grant direct subsidies to farmers in Poland and other candidate countries. During his visit to Brussels, Stoiber acknowledged the Commission's offer as just, because two categories of membership in the EU should not be created. It is impossible, however, to grant more money to farmers than is proposed by the EC, because the member state simply cannot afford it, believes Stoiber. He stressed that a reform of the European Union's (EU) agriculture policy would be necessary, so as to gradually reduce the subsidies to farmers after 2006. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B3), M.T.