Fishermen and farmers demonstrate to demand administrative simplifications and better income, March 9, 2024 in Boulogne-sur-Mer (AFP/BERNARD BARRON)
“Too many taxes, too many standards, too much paperwork”: fishermen and farmers, including dozens on tractors, marched in the center of Boulogne-sur-Mer on Saturday to demand administrative simplifications and better income.
Honking horns and setting off firecrackers from the port to the sub-prefecture, they marched together for the first time at the call of the Rural Coordination and the Union of Fishing Business Managers.
“The real fight is the cash flow problems and the postponement of loans,” said Patrick Legars, a regional spokesperson for Rural Coordination, a delegation of which was received at the sub-prefecture.
He called for “not to accept the transfer of Ukrainian cereals and chickens which are ruining all of French agriculture”, believing that the income of “farmers and fishermen should not be the adjustment variable “of political decisions.
For Stéphane Bleuzet, president of the CR du Nord, “this is the first time that the Rural Coordination has joined forces with the fishermen to come and show their discontent.”
Fishermen and farmers demonstrate to demand administrative simplifications and better income, March 9, 2024 in Boulogne-sur-Mer (AFP/BERNARD BARRON)
“We march with the farmers, because we are like them with Europe, we are fed up with all the regulations that fall on us,” declared Jean-Marie Baheu, fisherman waiting for a license since the Brexit four years ago, which restricted access to British waters.
“Our companies are collapsing” with foreign producers “who are flooding the European market at unbeatable prices because they produce without environmental or social standards” lamented Olivier Leprêtre, president of the union of business leaders of the Peach.
Fishermen and farmers demonstrate to demand administrative simplifications and better income, March 9, 2024 in Boulogne-sur-Mer (AFP/BERNARD BARRON)
Brussels on Thursday called on European farmers to express themselves online about the weight of administrative tasks in their work, with a view to the simplification of CAP rules demanded by Member States after weeks of anger in this sector.
Actions continue to take place occasionally in Europe and in France. Thus, on Thursday, French and Spanish farmers demonstrated to demand from the European Union (EU) “totally tax-free production energy”.
© 2024 AFP
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