CAP aid, ecology, free trade: candidates from the main leaders of the list answered questions from the agricultural sector
Should aid from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) be distributed according to the number of hectares cultivated or the number of people working on the farm? This was one of the questions asked Tuesday to candidates for the European elections in front of an audience of farmers in Paris.
The exercise is not trivial: the CAP budget represents around a third of the budget of the European Union (EU) and France, the leading agricultural power in the area, is the first beneficiary with more than 9 billion euros per year. The elected representatives of the next European Parliament will have to decide whether the sums dedicated to farmers will remain as large, whether they must be conditional on compliance with environmental rules, whether free trade agreements must be renegotiated, whether new tools are needed to guarantee remunerative prices or help young farmers to set up.
All these issues have gained momentum with the crisis which raised the campaigns at the start of the year and highlighted “a form of distrust of the agricultural world towards this Europe”, noted Arnaud Rousseau, the boss of the FNSEA, the first agricultural union in France. Hence the importance, according to him, of hearing those responsible for agricultural issues from the main European lists during this grand oral organized by the FNSEA, Young Farmers, Chambers of Agriculture, Agricultural Cooperation, the specialized media Succeed and the Sciences Po Cevipof research center.
On direct aid from the CAP for example, which currently depends mainly on the surface area of farms, positions diverge. The PS-Place publique list proposes to make them evolve towards “employment and ecological utility aid”declared socialist MEP Christophe Clergeau. “We must continue to ensure, as much as possible, the competitiveness of our farms and aid per hectare is an essential element”conversely estimated Céline Imart, number two on the Les Républicains (LR) list, herself a cereal producer.
Jérémy Decerle, representative of the Macronist Renaissance list and breeder, does not propose putting an end to aid per hectare but “that the basis for triggering aid is on assets”or the number of people working on the farm. “We will be able to direct agricultural aid from the CAP towards modernization, the expansion of our farms, and trust in technology”declared for his part Gilles Pennelle, representative of the National Rally list.
Among the other subjects often mentioned, environmental standards. The European Green Deal, a set of texts aimed at achieving the EU’s new climate objectives, was widely contested during farmers’ protests. But “I refuse to leave the agricultural world facing a civil society which potentially, in ten years, in fifteen years, will literally explode because all environmental pollution will have reached proportions that have become unmanageable”declared Claude Gruffat of the Europe-Ecologie-Les Verts list.
On the other hand, the list of Zemmourists from Reconquête! proposes to remove the link between CAP aid and compliance with new environmental rules, its representative Olivier Cleland, farm manager, ensuring that farmers “have always managed to adapt” in the face of climatic hazards. Free trade agreements were also discussed, with Marina Mesure of La France insoumise defending in particular “the exit of all current agreements” while several candidates suggested mirror clauses, a mechanism requiring imported products to meet the same standards as those applying to European farmers.