EP president says he understands demands of Baltic farmers

After meeting with representatives of Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian farmers on Thursday, Schulz raised the issue at a later EU summit.

"I raised the point at the council. I understand the farmers," Schulz said at a news conference.

"It is absolutely inappropriate that in one country for the same criteria a farmer gets an amount of 100 percent and in another country fulfilling the same criteria - 39 percent or 42 percent, as is in the case of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania," the EP president told BNS.

"I think in the negotiations about multi-annual financial framework and especially the programs in the application of the MFF, we must try to solve such problems, which are results of the enlargement process but all members of the EU and also all citizens of the EU have the right to equal treatment," Schulz said.

Amid their demands for bigger EU payments, the Baltic farmers held a protest action outside the venue of the EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, shortly after handing a petition with 60,000 signatures to the EP president.

The Baltic states have criticized the current proposal of the European Commission (EC) in connection to direct payments in the new budget after 2014, seeking faster unification of direct payments to avoid major differences between the highest and the lowest support levels within the EU.

Under the current EC proposal, Lithuania would start with a payment of 144 euros per hectare of land and would reach 176 euros in 2017, as compared with the EU level of 268 euros.