Tone up.

The National Federation of Farmers' Unions (FNSEA) and Young Farmers (JA) demanded, Wednesday January 24, "immediate" aid for farmers and a reduction in environmental constraints, in a detailed list of demands addressed to the government , in full mobilization of the profession throughout France.

The first French agricultural union and the JA demand "immediate responses on remuneration" including emergency aid to "the sectors most in crisis", and in the longer term, the implementation of a "project to reduce standards,” they said in a statement.

While, according to sources within the executive, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal must make initial announcements on Thursday or Friday to try to stem the crisis which grew even more serious on Wednesday, the FNSEA and the JA have listed 24 claims in their document.

Also read: Downgrading, debt, European standards… the reasons for the anger of French farmers

This will, according to the unions, involve “ensuring absolute compliance with the Egalim laws” of 2018 and 2021 on the sharing of value between players in the French food chain, via “reinforced controls throughout the territory”.

While the planned increase in taxation of non-road diesel (GNR), a fuel used in tractors, was one of the factors triggering the anger of the agricultural world, the unions want to “guarantee full compensation for all (.. .) via the immediate implementation of the tax credit and the integration into the price paid of the amount currently reimbursed", according to the document.

“Immediately help the sectors most in crisis”

This also requires the "payment of all CAP aid [common European agricultural policy, Editor's note] immediately whatever the reasons for non-payment", as well as "the payment as quickly as possible of all health compensation and climate (...) owed by the State" and their tax exemption.

The list also mentions the need to “immediately help the sectors most in crisis: viticulture and organic agriculture”, victims of inflationary pressures.

Read alsoFive figures to understand the discomfort of farmers

The president of the FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau requested in April 2023, just after his arrival at the head of the union, emergency aid of “50 to 100 million euros” to help organic producers, pleading for “a massive plan ".

The Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau announced the following month a “crisis package” of 60 million euros accompanied by measures to stimulate demand.

But beyond the already known demands, such as the "clear refusal" of free trade agreements, in particular with Mercosur, the FNSEA and the JA took a step forward on Wednesday in their demands, particularly in terms of the environment.

A “moratorium on bans” on pesticides

In fact, they are no longer only asking for an end to "over-transpositions", i.e. more extensive applications of European regulations than expected, but also to remove existing measures.

In the viewfinder: the zones of non-treatment with phytosanitary products (ZNT), i.e. the safety distances to be respected near homes or watercourses, but also the “water plan” decree of 2021 which regulates water withdrawals for agriculture in the face of droughts.

And still on the environmental aspect, the unions are demanding a "moratorium on bans" on pesticides and a "rejection of Ecophyto", the government plan which aims to halve the use of pesticides by 2030, compared to to 2015-2017.

Also read: The EU defends “green” trade, but still wants to extend its free trade agreements

In the longer term, the two unions are calling for the opening of legislative projects, in particular to "display the normative pause and the reduction of standards".

Among their grievances is also the fact of "disarming the agents" of the French Biodiversity Office, to reorient this "environmental police" towards "pedagogy rather than repression".

With AFP

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