Article: Spain pleads for EU crisis funds as drought hits farmers
Spain is facing record level droughts and has requested emergency funds for the European Union to support over 890,000 struggling farmers. Water reserves are at 50% capacity after roughly 5 years of drought, and although Spain received funds from the EU last year related to the increased price of raw materials due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The state’s most agricultural region has been the most heavily affected by the drought. As a primary producer of oil, fruits, and vegetables, Spain’s situation is growing more dire as they attempt to keep up with demand and financial needs within the state.
Natural disasters such as droughts are unfortunate, but ultimately bound to happen, so the events taking place in Spain are not completely unprecedented. This drought will have ripple effects throughout the world in terms of the availability of Spanish products like oil, which will drive up prices for undersupplied goods. In my opinion it is likely that the European Union will consent to the request for funds made by Spain, especially because this was their precedent set from the previous year. Since this pattern of high temperatures and low rainfall has affected Spain for the past 5 years, things could get worse if something doesn’t change, and this could lead to a plummet in Spain’s economy and shortages among consumers of their goods, but as an international relations issue this seems to be relatively small scale as Spain is a well developed nation and a member of the EU.
In International Relations we have discussed the overarching themes of the dynamic nature of states, as well as geography, and both of those concepts apply to the events in Spain. The nation, like every other, has had times of prosperity and scarcity throughout its history, and it seems that this drought will bring a decline in production, the economy, and undoubtedly the contentment of its citizens. This has pushed the government to take action in order to appease farmers looking for aid so they will continue to stay in power, and that has come in the form of asking the EU for funds. The geography of Spain also plays a part in these events, as the location and terrain in the nation has no doubt played a role in the crippling nature of the drought.