Cyprus seeks EU support to keep youth in countryside

Cyprus is seeking support from the European Union in its efforts to bring about the demographic regeneration of its rural areas, Minister for Agriculture Maria Panayiotou said in a statement from Brussels, where she was attending a meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council of the EU on Monday.

Panayiotou said that this Agriculture Ministers Council held under the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU was dedicated to the demographic revitalisation of the countryside, noting that this is an issue "which we are very much concerned about", as the Cypriot government's aim is to stem the abandonment of the countryside by young people.

This effort, she noted, is carried out "through a number of financial instruments” in the context of the government's programme.

The Agriculture Minister said that during the Council she explained that "this cannot be done only from national resources" and that the Common Agricultural Policy "needs to be supported by other financial instruments which will allow rural and mountain areas to become attractive for young farmers and young families."

The aim, she stressed, is to make "small and medium-sized production in rural areas viable and of course competitive", since "many of these areas have an increased cost of moving products."

Cyprus, she underlined, asks that the the CAP "be supported by other financial instruments which can allow for the creation of infrastructure so that our countryside can be revitalised, as I have said, and become an attraction for young farmers and young farmers."