Francisco Guerreiro refuses CAP funding to bullfighting activities

Brussels, 20 October 2020 - MEP Francisco Guerreiro, along with the rest of the Greens/EFA group, rejects that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) can subsidize rearing bulls for bullfighting purposes. The new CAP is being discussed in the European Parliament and will be voted this week. 

‘It’s time to turn off the European tap for bullfighting activities. We support the idea that CAP funding should not be used to rear bulls with this purpose. This amendment that we propose aims to exclude farms that breed bulls for bullfighting from receiving money from the CAP, which was basically created to support food production in the EU, and not this activity’, clarifies the MEP.

Nowadays, with the CAP, farmers receive funding from the European Union (EU) for every hectare they exploit for agricultural purposes. The proposal in question, submitted under the CAP Strategic Plans section, will define that the basic support income that farmers receive does not include the proportion of agricultural land dedicated to the cultivation of pasture, feed or other sources of animal feed whose final destination is its sale for activities related to bullfighting, either through direct sale or through intermediaries.

In addition, the MEP proposes that the so-called “coupled payments”, that is, those associated with specific products and that have been gradually eliminated in order to avoid overproduction, should be allocated in order to exclude the number of cattle that are being raised for such bullfighting purposes (amendments nº 1347 and 1353). 

This will be the first time that legislation of this nature has been proposed under the Common Agricultural Policy. Looking forward to the result of the votes, Francisco Guerreiro anticipates that “the Greens/EFA expect support from the other political families, since several MEPs have voiced, on quite a few occasions, their dissatisfaction with the use of community funds for bullfighting”.

The final result of the votes on the Common Agricultural Policy will constitute the European Parliament's official position on it, and will be released on Friday.

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