Geoffrey Branger
This Saturday, farmers and fishermen are demonstrating in Boulogne-sur-Mer to oppose European policies. On Thursday, the European Parliament extended trade agreements with Ukraine for another year, which could harm French farmers.
Europe is at the heart of the demands of farmers and fishermen. They are demonstrating together this Saturday in Boulogne-sur-Mer to denounce what they call the “diktats of Brussels”. While on Thursday, the European Parliament extended the trade agreements with Ukraine by one year, these agreements risk further weakening the situation of French farmers.
Farmers and their union representatives believe that products imported from Ukraine (cereals, eggs, poultry), which are very inexpensive, are causing prices to fall and therefore the selling prices of French producers. “We have multiplied the import of cereals by 17. We are letting pass and we are increasing the entry of poultry. Today, the price of wheat has never been so low for almost ten years,” explains Patrick Legras, spokesperson. word of the Rural Coordination. “We have European stocks which have never been so high with Ukrainian prices and also Russian prices which have only one goal, which is to sell their goods whatever happens.”
“Adjustment variable”
Especially since these products imported from Ukraine do not meet the same standards as in France, particularly on phytosanitary products or farming methods. For Philippe Chalmin, economist and specialist in raw materials markets, this agreement above all shows that Europe is putting farmers in the background. “Ukrainian agriculture belongs to conglomerates owned by oligarchs. It is not the agricultural model which is the dominant model in Europe. So it is true that the agricultural world, rightly, can say ‘yes, it ‘is good, we support Ukraine, but we are still a bit of an adjustment variable’.”
This is denounced by the unions who see this extension as a provocation and assure that their mobilization will continue. He also does not rule out a further hardening of the movement, particularly at the time of the European elections and the Olympic Games.