Translated automatically by AI from the Italian original.
ROME – Protecting the rights of agricultural workers and managing EU funds are again at the heart of the debate between Rome and Brussels. In a message posted on his social media channels, the Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests, Francesco Lollobrigida, claimed Italy’s leading role in defending the principle of social conditionality, while also issuing a warning and a cross‑party appeal to the political groups in the European Parliament.
The minister’s intervention comes amid the risk that this clause could be scaled back or scrapped under EU regulations.
The principle: “Respect workers or lose public funds”
Social conditionality, introduced as a requirement for access to European Union subsidies, makes the granting of public funds and aid contingent on strict compliance with labour, safety and collective bargaining laws.
“Italy has defended social conditionality alone in Europe. It is a simple, common‑sense principle: anyone who fails to respect workers’ rights must not receive a euro from the state.
Enforcing it in Italy was my first act as minister. Yet today, in Brussels, they want to scrap this measure.”
— Francesco Lollobrigida, Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests
Appeal to MEPs: “Unite to uphold social justice”
Faced with negotiating pressure to water down the measure in EU discussions, Lollobrigida calls on all Italian delegations to stand together in Strasbourg and Brussels to safeguard a fundamental achievement in legal and social progress.
“That is why I have appealed to every political group in the European Parliament to restore and defend a fundamental principle of social justice and civilisation. Workers’ rights cannot be called into question.”
The initiative aims to prevent the removal of these constraints from creating unfair competition between agricultural businesses in the EU single market, to the detriment of producers and companies that fully uphold labour protections.
