Europe1 .fr with AFP/Photo credits: ATA UFUK SEKER / ANADOLU / ANADOLU VIA AFP 12:55 p.m., February 26, 2024

This Monday, hundreds of tractors paralyze the center of Brussels, on the sidelines of a meeting of European agriculture ministers paving the way for simplifications of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

The Belgian police have nearly 900 agricultural vehicles.

Protesters also lit fires.

Hundreds of tractors paralyze the center of Brussels on Monday, on the sidelines of a meeting of Agriculture Ministers of the Twenty-Seven paving the way for simplifications of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

As on February 1, the Belgian capital once again became the epicenter of agricultural anger: some 900 agricultural vehicles were counted by the police. 

The latter used water cannons to extinguish the fires lit by the demonstrators, giving rise to sometimes tense confrontations.

Alongside Belgian organizations, delegations from Spain, Portugal and the powerful Italian Coldiretti confederation are present near a Council blocked by police roadblocks.

Anxious to defuse discontent, member states demanded from the European Commission a plan to “simplify” the CAP rules.

Brussels presents its first ideas on Monday.

After an exemption already approved for fallow land, the obligations to maintain permanent meadows should thus be relaxed this year for breeders undergoing reconversion.

Several States are also asking for flexibilities on crop rotation obligations.

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A tolerance would be granted to farmers not respecting the requirements of the CAP due to climatic episodes.

Finally, reporting requirements would be reduced and use of satellite imagery would help reduce inspection visits “by up to 50%”.

But beyond these short-term measures, which the European executive could ratify quickly, Brussels opens the door to "medium-term" legislative revisions of the CAP, in negotiation with States and MEPs, to modify certain criteria. and “reduce the load”.

In the immediate future, "we need something pragmatic, operational (...) there is space (for modifications) within the current rules", estimated French Minister Marc Fesneau at his arrival in Brussels.

"But there are things which require modifying the basic act (of the PAC legislation). Whether this legislative modification spans the European elections (in June) does not matter. The important thing is that "we are moving forward (...) We need to set a trajectory, to lay the foundations for a CAP which will reassure" in the long term, he insisted.

At the same time, Paris is calling for the reopening - through amendments in the European Parliament - of legislation governing emissions from poultry and pig farms, after an agreement reached in December between States and MEPs.

“Bureaucratic monster”

“There is a lot of anger at broken promises: this is an opportunity for necessary reforms, the current CAP is a bureaucratic monster. Work in the fields rather than paperwork must be the order of the day,” said German Minister Cem Özdemir.

But without "false solutions": "We must ensure that we can make money with biodiversity (...) Whoever says that we must take a break from climate protection is anything but a friend of farmers" , he warns, while the specter of an unraveling of ecological obligations looms.

On the sidelines of the Agricultural Show in Paris, Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said on Sunday he was open to simply making green bonds such as fallow land or crop rotation "incentivizing".

A review of agricultural policy "is a good thing" in order to "pay better" to farmers, adds his Belgian counterpart David Clarinval, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU, while recalling that the Commission will also propose "in March" measures outside the CAP, possibly on "the formation of market prices".

"There are also elements (of environmental legislation) of the 'Green Deal' (Editor's note) which are requested from farmers but which are not remunerated, this is the heart of the problem", added David Clarinval.

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However, the organizations demonstrating on Monday consider the outlined measures insufficient.

They demand in particular the "definitive end" of trade negotiations with the South American Mercosur countries, and a "better sharing of value" with manufacturers and distributors. 

“A project larger than the small relief on administrative costs”, recognizes Vincent Delobel, goat breeder and administrator of the Walloon union Fugea, denouncing the “economic vice” between the inflation of costs (fertilizer, energy) and the fall sales prices.

“We can't make a living from it, the PAC bonuses are on hold.”

Another reason for anger: Brussels proposed measures to restrict Ukrainian imports, now discussed in the European Parliament, but without satisfying the agricultural sector.

The subject remains explosive in Poland, where farmers are blocking border crossings and dumping Ukrainian cargo on the roads.