Brussels paralyzed by hundreds of tractors, Marc Fesneau wants to “lay the foundations for a reassuring CAP”
Like 1er February, the Belgian capital once again becomes the epicenter of agricultural anger. Around 900 tractors – according to the police – paralyzed the center of Brussels on Monday, on the sidelines of a meeting of the agriculture ministers of the Twenty-Seven. Police used water cannons to put out fires lit by protesters, leading to sometimes tense confrontations.
Brussels presents its first avenues of “simplification” rules of the common agricultural policy (CAP). 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 flexibility on crop rotation obligations.
In the immediate future, “we need something pragmatic, operational (…) there is space [pour des modifications] within the current rules »estimated French Minister Marc Fesneau upon his arrival in Brussels. “But there are things that require modifying the basic act [de la législation PAC]. That this legislative modification spans the European elections [de juin] has no importance. The important thing is that we move forward (…) We need to set a trajectory, to lay the foundations for a reassuring CAP” 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.
“There is a lot of anger over 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”, declared the German minister, Cem Özdemir. For his part, on the sidelines of the Paris Agricultural Show, the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, said on Sunday he was open to simply making “incentives” green bonds, such as fallows or crop rotation.