Paris (AFP)

A "necessary mobilization" to "negotiate a new Common Agricultural Policy": around fifteen organizations including Greenpeace and the Confédération paysanne mobilized across France on Saturday to raise awareness of the discussions on the next CAP scheduled for next week at European level.

On the steps of the Opéra Bastille in Paris, Damien Londiveau, from the Combat Monsanto association, calls by megaphone to "initiate a global change of society" via the negotiation of a "new CAP", in front of a hundred people from all ages.

"Mobilization is necessary" for "a balance of power" in the negotiations, he explains.

Tom Baquerre, also from Combat Monsanto, says he is "satisfied" with this mobilization "despite the very difficult health context".

"The CAP determines the next seven years of French agriculture and food, we cannot let this moment pass."

The Council of European Agriculture Ministers is meeting Monday and Tuesday to try to find a qualified majority on a set of three crucial texts which will determine the next CAP.

Parliament examines the same texts from Tuesday.

Then, the "trilogue" (European Council, Parliament and Commission) will have to decide between the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 to define the rules which will apply from 1 January 2023.

All over France, actions took place on Saturday under the slogan "Our plate for tomorrow", at the call of Attac, Générations Futures, Terre Solidaire, Combat Monsanto, Objectif Zéro OGM or the National Federation of organic farming.

In Lille, around a hundred people were gathered.

Flag of the Peasant Confederation on the shoulder, Antoine Jean, milk producer in Nomain (North) denounced at the microphone "the permanent race to expand farms" because of the aid per hectare from the CAP.

"I have been a farmer for 30 years and I have the impression that I am still living the same struggle".

He believes that "the CAP can make a big difference in the coming years".

- Dress code "Amish" -

In Bordeaux, bales of hay and crates of autumn vegetables were placed on the cobblestones of the Place de la Bourse, where a few dozen activists had gathered.

"We are all eaters, so we all have a say in how we will eat, this word does not belong only to the FNSEA", the majority agricultural union, told AFP Sylvie Nony, spokesperson for the collective Our plate for tomorrow in Gironde.

53-year-old bus driver Eric Payen came for the occasion in "Amish", the dress code of the day, "to make fun of President Emmanuel Macron's words" on opponents of 5G.

Like him, militants had brought out trunks of straw hats, jackets, scarves and large petticoats.

"We are calling for healthy agriculture for humans while respecting biodiversity," said this ANV COP 21 activist in Gironde.

"I have my laptop of course, but we are against the deployment of 5G while the studies of harmfulness and non-harmfulness have not yet been made. We are taken for outdated, but we are ahead - beware when we say that we must change gears (...), we are for progress within the limits accepted by our planet, "he explains.

"We are asking for an in-depth reform of the CAP which will begin in 2023 to transform the way we will feed ourselves tomorrow," Mathieu Courgeau, farmer and president of the French platform "Pour une autre CAP", which brings together 43 organizations, indicated on Friday. including Les Amis de la Terre, the Confédération paysanne, Attac, Slow Food, WWF and the Bird Protection League (LPO).

bj-cda-im-ak / dlm

© 2020 AFP