MONTASTRUC-DU-SALIES, Haute-Garonne (Reuters) – Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced on Friday a series of administrative simplification measures and the cancellation of the increase in the tax on non-road diesel (GNR) without managing to defuse the anger of the French agricultural world, whose main unions have called for continued mobilization.
“It’s too fair,” declared the president of the FNSEA (National Federation of Farmers’ Unions) Arnaud Rousseau on the TF1 television news, even if he recognized that the declarations of the head of government, who visited a farm in Haute-Garonne to unveil a first set of emergency measures, which were “in the right direction on certain aspects”, particularly on RNG.
The boss of the first French agricultural union asked to be received on Saturday morning with the Young Farmers by the Prime Minister to “re-discuss all the points” and “go further in the demands”.
During his visit to a cattle farm in Montastruc-du-Salies, Gabriel Attal declared that the government would “immediately” implement ten administrative simplification measures, cancel the increase in the tax on GNR and release a “substantial envelope ” for viticulture and 50 million euros for the organic sector.
Claiming to want to “put agriculture above everything else”, Gabriel Attal estimated that there was “healthy anger”, while farmers are paralyzing many roads in the country, particularly on the outskirts of Paris.
“We are going to launch a month of simplification over the next three weeks,” promised the head of government, emphasizing that he understands the exasperation of operators in the face of the piling up of standards and the multiplication of “sticks in the wheels”.
“KAFKAIAN SYSTEM”
On the highly anticipated subject of the GNR, Gabriel Attal announced his decision to put an end to a “Kafkaesque system”.
The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, announced in September 2023 the elimination of the “tax niche” for GNR, a fuel used by farmers, as part of France’s decarbonization efforts. A gradual elimination by 2030, under an agreement reached with the FNSEA in the summer of 2023.
This decision has had the effect of increasing the price of GNR per liter since the start of the year, which puts a further strain on farmers’ finances.
“We are going to stop with this trajectory of increase on the GNR”, said Gabriel Attal, also promising an “immediate return to the pump of the exemption”. “We are moving to exemption at the foot of the invoice. By summer (…) the deduction will be made immediately and the State will compensate” upon delivery of the fuel.
He announced the payment in February of 50% of the cash advance, or 215 million euros.
Regarding the Egalim laws, of which farmers are demanding full application, the government made a gesture on Friday morning by threatening to sanction manufacturers and distributors who do not comply with them up to 2% of the turnover.
Gabriel Attal specified, without naming them, that “three very heavy sanctions” were about to be imposed on “important companies”.
“We need to go further on the Egalim law,” commented Arnaud Rousseau. “He named three companies that he is going to denounce, we want to know how it was done, if we can go further.”
In terms of simplifications, which will also be the subject of discussions under the authority of the prefects, a presumption of emergency of ten months will be created for appeals, the creation of water retention structures, cleanings will be facilitated, a break is decided “to discuss zoning” in wetlands and peatlands, or the regulations on hedges go from 14 to one provision.
Most of these measures will be applied by decree.
Pledging to “not leave farmers at the mercy of unfair competition”, the Prime Minister reiterated France’s opposition to the signing of a trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur.
Gabriel Attal added that he was waiting for a precise report on “the state of our food sovereignty and our dependencies” by the Salon de l’Agriculture, scheduled for February 24 in Paris.
“He talked about Mercosur, we would also like to know more about Ukraine. There is the subject of overtransposition on the environmental level, he did not address things,” reacted Arnaud Rousseau on TF1.
“He was talking about proofs of love, perhaps we saw some, but they are not enough. What was said this evening does not calm the anger, we must go further,” summarized the boss of the FNSEA.
“The tractors will stay on the roads (…) We are not giving up,” warned Véronique Le Floc’h, president of Rural Coordination, another agricultural union, on BFM TV.
(Written by Sophie Louet, with contributions from Sybille de La Hamaide and Nicolas Delame, edited by Bertrand Boucey and Jean-Stéphane Brosse)
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