Why I will vote no in the EU referendum - II.

Article published on Invisible Dog before the referendum on the Czech Republic’s accession to the EU
Comment:
I have been inspired by three people to try to vent my views in this way from time to time (although uneducated and untrained to do so).
The first is Ondřej Neff, whose Invisible Dog is (if possible) visible on my monitor daily, and whose reading gives me much more pleasure than reading the reprinted CTK reports in our paper newspapers.
The other is my father, who has been longing to have his column somewhere since sometime in the mid-nineties, entitled “Yesterday made me angry” (he used a somewhat more expressive term that is probably not suitable for publication). I’m too lazy and too resigned to spend every day bemoaning the injustices of the world, and because I also have to make a living, I will only write occasionally.
The third is (presumably Senator) Vízek, who has published his views several times in The Invisible Dog, and who has thus eliminated my fears that no one can read or (heaven forbid) publish my misguided drivel.

My main argument in my last article against joining the EU was that it seems to me unnecessary or even immoral to expect or even demand that an EU citizen should contribute to our well-being without doing everything we can to improve our own standard of living from our own resources. Nota bene if no-one asks the EU citizen whether he wants to pay us and how much.
I have also touched on agricultural subsidies, the ‘unfair’ cuts to which will probably affect us if we join the EU.
I remember reading Joseph Heller’s book ‘Title XXII’ for the first time (young and uninstructed) and somehow not understanding how Major Major’s father can earn money by not growing alfalfa, buy more fields with the money he earns, which he also does not grow alfalfa on and therefore earns more money, and buy more fields with the money he earns….
I’m not an expert in the above area and I’m sure I’m going to simplify the whole issue, but if I’m not mistaken and if I remember the newspaper articles well, the EU budget is mostly just money to support farmers and export surplus production outside the EU. If anyone has any statistics on how much of the money intended to support agriculture is absorbed by its distribution (and not only at EU level, but also at national level, I point out!) or the elaboration of various concepts, standards, etc., I would be very grateful if you would kindly provide me with the statistics. Some 5% of the EU population works in agriculture!

Of course, I understand that even a small European farmer, farming on a barren, rocky field somewhere in the mountains, wants to earn his daily bread, but I do not understand why he clings so hard to the fact that it is that field that will feed him, and I do not know whether anyone has asked the other 95% or so of non-farmers whether they want to support that farmer from their taxes. I do not know, but I am very confident that they do not. I am convinced that (as in this country) the politicians in question are merely muttering about the strategic nature of agricultural production and the landscape-forming function of agriculture, while their subordinate officials process subsidy applications, distribute funds, fly-check that the farmer has not sown more than he was supposed to according to the plan they have devised, and finance the dumping of surplus crops to non-EU countries. The influx of cheaper crops from other countries is then countered by the EU with tariffs and non-tariff barriers (just look at http://europa.eu.int/index_en.htm for documents related to bananas, for example!).

And how does this affect my decision to join or not to join the EU? I mentioned the disgustingness of the humiliating threats against farmers from candidate countries last time. But what betrays me from my eventual “yes” vote to join the EU is the fact that if I don’t like agricultural subsidies in the Czech Republic, then not only will I see much less of them at the “European” level, but I will be unable to change their allocation almost at all. Our politicians will babble on about EU directives and the Common Agricultural Policy and reassure us that we will give less than we get, but I am against the principle as such! The production of organic food is a slightly different matter; it cannot do without support, although if citizens were forced to vote with their wallets, it might turn out that there is not such a demand for it…
It’s probably hard to find a bureaucrat protesting against agricultural subsidies at EU level, if he’s alive, a politician will tell you again (during the European Parliament elections) that he can’t do anything against the general consensus (or you won’t find one who would be brave enough to put the removal of agricultural subsidies on his agenda).
There are solutions.

For one thing, the situation may become financially unsustainable – the money will simply run out.
There is also the possibility that populist politicians will emerge who will make the cause their elevator to power. If such people then gather in the EU’s top bodies, then I would really rather not be in the EU…
Or (and I am resigned to not being praised by farmers for this) agriculture may come to be seen as more or less every other kind of business. Somehow it has escaped me that anyone is even theoretically evaluating this possibility. Afforested land (I would happily subsidise afforestation on a one-off basis) will fulfil the same landscape function as cultivated fields at considerably less cost, perhaps even retaining some of the water that doesn’t turn into floods.
There are indications that the first option is the most likely. So far it has only been subtly mentioned, but I expect that when the bread is broken, the first demonstrative truckloads of tomatoes and tractors blocking motorways in France will prompt politicians and officials to look for new sources of revenue, new udders to milk.
The agricultural issues mentioned above merely show how ‘problems’ are being solved at European level (and, alas, on a smaller scale, but to the same extent here).
No, I do not want to join such a Union.