On Thursday 1 February in Brussels, the leaders of the European Union countries attempted to provide some initial responses to the demands of angry farmers, who protested the same day in the Belgian capital, by launching a project to simplify the rules of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
“We are going to work with the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council on a proposal that we are going to present to reduce the administrative burden of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) procedures”, declared Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, after the European summit meeting. This proposal should be ready in time for the next meeting of the ‘Agriculture’ Council on Monday 26 February.
This announcement comes as thousands of demonstrators from several countries and some 1,200 tractors took to the streets of Brussels on Thursday to express the anger of farmers across Europe.
Ms von der Leyen emphasised the need to defend the legitimate interests of farmers, particularly in trade negotiations, by guaranteeing a level playing field in terms of standards, referring to the trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur, which is seen as a threat by the European agricultural sector (see other news).
In its conclusions, the European Council recalls “the essential role of the CAP and invites the Council and the Commission to take work forward as necessary”.
The evening before, the French Minister for Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, welcomed the Commission’s proposal (https://aeur.eu/f/aoa ) on set-aside (see EUROPE 13340/4). “This is the first signal sent by the European Commission to farmers, but it doesn’t solve everything”, he said. He called for simplification efforts to be pursued at European level, without waiting for the post-2027 CAP.
European health and agricultural monitoring force. French President Emmanuel Macron called for the strategic dialogue on agriculture launched by the Commission to result in concrete simplifications “by the end of February” (see EUROPE 13337/7).
He also advocated setting up a “European health and agricultural monitoring force” to prevent unfair competition between EU Member States (due to differences in the application of rules). He also called out the major European purchasing groups seeking to circumvent French laws. Mr Macron also called for “the objectives of the Farm to Fork strategy to be reviewed in the light of the objective of food sovereignty”.
Referring to the trade agreements that the EU is signing with its international partners, the French President called for ‘mirror clauses’ to be respected with regard to imports from third countries.
Finally, Mr Macron said that Ukrainian grain imports would also be covered by “a reinforced safeguard mechanism” at European level, to enable intervention in the event of price destabilisation within the EU. Petteri Orpo, the Finnish Prime Minister, also felt that Ukrainian grain entering the European market was a cause for concern.
Giorgia Meloni, the President of the Italian Council, said that the ecological transition should not be an “ideological transition”, and that environmental sustainability should not be set against economic and social sustainability.
To see the European Council conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/aoz
Major announcements in France. On Thursday, the French Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, promised a €150 million package, “as early as this year”, to ease the tax and social burden on the country’s livestock farmers. He also announced the suspension of a plan setting targets for reducing the use of pesticides.
“I’ve never seen such a major package of measures”, MEP Jérémy Decerle (Renew Europe, French) told EUROPE. “When we ban a product here that is not banned elsewhere, it weakens us”, he said in relation to imports.
He hoped that the measures announced would satisfy farmers.
On Wednesday 7 February, the plenary session of the European Parliament will debate the theme of ‘a dialogue for sustainable and fairly remunerated European agriculture’. The debates in the European Parliament are polarised, whereas pragmatic and balanced responses should be found, noted Mr Decerle, who was cautious about the results to be expected from the forthcoming debate. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur, with the editorial staff)