France: large agricultural unions call to suspend blockades, but their movement “will remain”

First modification: 02/01/2024 – 21:54

4 min

Calm seems to be returning to France after turbulent days due to the agrarian crisis, or at least that has been the request of the main agricultural unions, who urged thousands of farmers to lift the blockages of roads and highways, in the midst of protests demanding improvements in the sector.

The person in charge of making the announcement was Arnaud Rousseau, president of the National Federation of Agricultural Operators' Unions (FNSEA), who was satisfied with the promises made by the Government, but warned of measures if there are non-compliance.

“The movement does not stop, it transforms,” ​​Rousseau said at a press conference after positively receiving the “tangible advances” announced by the Executive this February 1 and which complement the negotiations that have been taking place for a few days.

The FNSEA and Young Farmers unions proposed the month of June maximum term to see the promised improvements materialize, in addition to ensuring that they would go to a new unemployment in 15 days if the new plans do not begin to be implemented.

The demonstrations have mobilized some 40,000 farmers throughout the country since October of last year, but for ten days the situation seemed uncontrollable.

unfair competition

Gabriel Attal, French Prime Minister, was in charge of making the announcements this Thursday, which include 150 million euros (about 163 million dollars) in fiscal and social support for livestock farmers and a reduction in pesticide controls on agricultural products, among others.

The Minister of Economy, Bruno Le Maire; that of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau; and the Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, accompanied the intervention of Attal, who has fought against his first crisis after being appointed as the head of the French ministerial cabinet by President Emmanuel Macron at the beginning of January.

“We want to be sovereign, sovereign to cultivate, sovereign to harvest, sovereign to feed ourselves (…) It is not a sovereignty withdrawn into itself because I do not forget that our agriculture is one of our main export sectors, with cereals, wines, spirits , dairy,” Attal declared.

French farmers complain of being in disadvantage compared to its European neighbors, alleging that, due to the severity of the French Government's measures on sustainable development and environmental protection, regulations have been imposed that affect national agricultural production.

Since 2016 and unlike the rest of the countries in the European Union (EU), France has banned all neonicotinoids – a family of insecticides – which prevents farmers from defending themselves against pests.

Prohibitions that have caused damage to crops and have forced the import of more and more products from other EU countries and even from Ukraine, which do use products with neonicotinoids to spray their crops.

In addition, farmers were protesting the increased energy costs –related to sanctions on Russia for the war in Ukraine–, increased input prices, increased imports and taxation of foreign foods.

Macron asks the EU for an agricultural “European force”

From Brussels, President Macron spoke out on the matter and called for the creation of a “European health and agricultural control force” in order to integrate the bloc's policies and avoid unfair competition, which French farmers repudiate.

The declaration occurred within the framework of the summit of the 27 European countries, where they agreed to disburse 50 billion euros more in aid for Ukraine, but in which the agricultural issue was discussed, which has also affected Poland, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, also accumulating days of protests with similar requests.

Macron also referred to a controversial trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur countries for the meat trade, which has not yet been ruled out, but is in question.

Meanwhile, regarding Ukrainian imports of cereals, the French president assured that they could be affected by a “reinforced safeguard mechanism” at the European level, which would allow “intervention” in the event of price destabilization.

Ukraine is one of the largest cereal producers in the world, but since the large-scale Russian invasion began in 2022, its production has been impacted, so the European bloc decided to increase imports into its territory as an aid measure. to the country at war.

With EFE and local media