Arnaud Rousseau (right), president of the FNSEA and Arnaud Gaillot, president of Young Farmers on January 22, 2024 in Paris during a press statement (AFP/Dimitar DILKOFF)
The FNSEA and the Young Farmers are urging the government to take into account “the entirety” of their grievances to achieve an end to the crisis, the presidents of these unions declared to AFP on Wednesday.
The “hundred very concrete proposals that we will present this evening to the Prime Minister (…) is not a basis for negotiations, it is a complete request in which there is no question of shopping around “, warned the president of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau.
Contacted by AFP, Matignon confirmed this exchange, without further details.
Earlier on Wednesday, the first French farmers’ union and the JA had distributed a detailed list of demands to the government, in full mobilization of the profession throughout France.
They demanded “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”, particularly environmental ones.
On this aspect of immediate aid, Mr. Rousseau noted that “the estimates are in progress, but obviously we are talking about several hundred million euros”.
“There is a rhythm” in these requests, between what can be decided quickly and what will have to be the subject of legislative work, “but what is in it is not à la carte “insisted Mr. Rousseau.
On the environment, FNSEA and JA 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: rules relating to the use of phytosanitary products and water withdrawals, as well as the French Biodiversity Office.
“What we are asking is for France to go back on all the rules which are not the same rules as at European level. You will never be able to make farmers love Europe if you make rules which penalize them against other European farmers, argued for his part the president of the JA, Arnaud Gaillot.
More broadly, and while the mobilization of farmers once again gained momentum on Wednesday with multiple blockages and demonstrations, Mr. Rousseau wanted to “find a way out quickly to prevent things from consolidating in an uncontrollable manner and ensure that the ball which is today in the Prime Minister’s court responds to the demand on the ground.
“This path cannot be with old recipes, it cannot be with a few somewhat emblematic announcements”, he insisted: “we very clearly need the public authorities to change their software”.
© 2024 AFP
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