Economy – Macron promises farmers 230 million euros and will condition the agreement with Mercosur

First modification: 02/01/2024 – 13:11

A plan divided into two devices that seeks to serve as an irrigation of water to quench the anger of the farmers who take to the streets of France in different parts of the country.

The first of the devices seeks to deploy 150 million euros in the uprooting of vineyards, which depends on the approval of the EU and for which at the moment it is unknown whether it will be permanent or temporary.

In the words of the head of the agricultural portfolio, this money would be used to increase the “structural support of the State worth 150 million euros, in addition to credits from the national wine program (OCM), to carry out a deferred restructuring, including the “option to uproot without replanting with a view to agricultural diversification, while guaranteeing the continuity of other actions of the national aid program.”

The second, which takes into account the remaining 80 million euros, would be focused on the creation of an emergency fund to “support our winegrowers who are going through treasury difficulties generated by numerous dangers,” wrote Fesneau on his X account.

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Bruno Le Maire: “The agreement with Mercosur will not be signed”

In the words of the president, the head of the Ministry of Economy and Agriculture, the most viable way to respond to the needs of French farmers is not to continue with the negotiations of the agreement between the EU and Mercosur.

Officials have made it clear that the agricultural practices of certain products in the Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and the recently added Bolivia) fail to comply with the environmental rules imposed on farmers in France such as the use of hormones that are used for fattening livestock or the use of certain phytosanitary products, but also the way in which the animals are raised or the value of the food they are fed.

For farm workers, bringing cows or poultry from South American countries would have a fairly high environmental impact and leaves the local product at a disadvantage.

The French president has said that he hopes to discuss this matter with the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, at the EU Summit taking place on Thursday, February 1, while the Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, In an interview with the Europe 1 radio station, he assured that “France has enough strength in Europe” to impose its position on Mercosur: “This agreement cannot be signed as it is. And it will not be signed.”

One of the options so that the agreement does not fall is to maintain “mirror clauses” for Mercosur farmers, that is, to align them with French parameters; Otherwise, France would be one of the 27 countries that would oppose the immense negotiation with Latin American countries.

The 'Egalim' law and the problem of agricultural distribution

In conjunction with the Government's promises to farmers, the Macron Administration plans to guarantee controls on distribution groups that flout national laws in order to achieve better prices.

In summary, the Egalim law imposes rules in commercial negotiations between farmers, industrialists and distributors, so that the former are guaranteed a minimum price for their products for sale to cover their production costs.

The problem comes when the second in the chain decide to go to neighboring countries or create headquarters in other European countries to then sell their products in French territory.

Although in the background there are cases such as that of the Leclerc group, which established a purchasing center in the Netherlands with its German partner Rewe and sought to reduce costs to have greater profitability.

The move brought with it a fine of six million euros to which Le Maire referred, arguing that “the sanctions apply to everyone, throughout the territory, to all distribution groups, whether they negotiate at the national level or with distribution centers. European purchases”.

With EFE and local media