by Sasha Uzunov
Skopje, Macedonia
Tuesday, 4 September 2018

The Spanish Ambassador to Macedonia, Mr Emilio Lorenzo Serra, has defended a controversial European Union agricultural project which aims to “consolidate” numerous small farming plots into larger more economically viable farms. – (EU funded MAINLAND project see link here )

Mr Serra was a guest speaker at a recycling and waste management project event in Skopje held by Macedonia’s deputy Environment Minister Mr Jani Makrudli. Mr Serra also made the controversial remark, referring to Macedonia as North Macedonia. see link here

A number of Macedonian farmers contacted TEAM UZUNOV blog on the condition of anonymity to express worry over the EU’s Land Consolidation project.

They are saying that it is a smokescreen for multinationals from Germany or the Netherlands etc. to buy up their land cheaply. The Spanish Ambassador Emilio Lorenzo Serra reacted to those concerns.

“…the reason for the Land Consolidation is that if you have a very small piece of land you will have a lot more big difficulties to buy a tractor or irrigate your land properly than if you joined forces with other [land] owners. You don’t necessarily have to sell your land to big companies – as you said – from from Germany or Holland.” – Interview below.

Question mark hangs over Dutch role in Macedonia ? What does the Netherlands want to do with Macedonian farming land?

Is there a hidden agenda over the Netherland’s long standing role in shaping Macedonia’s agriculture? Dutch Ambassador Plomp’s recent bizarre refusal to condemn Albanian right wing extremism whilst pretending to be anti extremist now places a question mark over other Dutch projects in Macedonia which may well and truly be genuine. If the Dutch government can’t respond to a straight forward question about Albanian Nazi statues then how can it now be trusted in other areas?

– more on Ambassador Plomp at this link