Farmers with their tractors demonstrate against new genomic techniques as part of a wave of protests across Europe, in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France, on February 6, 2024 (AFP/FREDERICK FLORIN )
The Agriculture Ministers of the Twenty-Seven are discussing proposals in Brussels on Monday to simplify and relax the CAP, under pressure from hundreds of tractors parading in the Belgian capital.
Already on February 1, more than a thousand agricultural vehicles invaded the streets of Brussels on the sidelines of a European summit, making them the epicenter of the anger shaking the continent.
From dawn, there should be “at least several hundred” tractors, “between 500 and 800”, to paralyze the European district again, estimates Fugea, the second Walloon agricultural union.
Alongside the main Belgian organizations, delegations from Spain, Portugal and the powerful Italian trade union confederation Coldiretti are expected to hammer home their demands at the European Council.
Anxious to defuse discontent, member states demanded from the European Commission a vast project to “simplify” the rules of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Brussels has presented the first ideas, which the ministers will examine on Monday: the obligations to maintain permanent meadows should thus be relaxed this year for breeders undergoing reconversion, so that they do not lose income.
Likewise, a tolerance would be granted to farmers not respecting the requirements of the CAP due to extreme climatic episodes.
Finally, reporting requirements would be reduced and use of satellite imagery would help reduce inspection visits “by up to 50%”.
– “Fair prices” –
Brussels has already approved a partial exemption on fallow obligations. Several states will request similar flexibilities on crop rotation obligations on Monday.
A passerby walks between rows of tractors, February 1, 2024 in Brussels (BELGA/AFP/DIRK WAEM)
“The discussion on Monday will focus on these short-term measures which can be applied very quickly,” underlines a European diplomat, before possible legislative revisions of the CAP, which are more complex and which would involve MEPs.
The European executive assures that it is considering such legislative changes in the “medium term” to “reduce the burden” on farms.
On the sidelines of the Agricultural Show in Paris, Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski even said on Sunday that he was open to simply making certain green obligations such as fallow land or crop rotation simply “incentivizing”.
However, the organizations demonstrating on Monday consider the measures outlined to be insufficient.
They demand in particular the “definitive halt” of trade negotiations with the South American Mercosur countries, Brussels having simply recognized that the conditions “are not currently met” to conclude them.
Above all, they are calling for “better value sharing” with manufacturers and distributors. “We must guarantee (farmers) fair and stable prices protected from speculation,” insists the alternative peasant coordination Via Campesina.
– “Structural problems” –
“Agriculture is in an economic vise that is tightening every year”, between the inflation of fertilizer and energy prices on one side, and the fall in sales prices on the other.
Added to this is the fact that “Ukrainian wheat quotas are sinking the market”, Vincent Delobel, goat breeder and administrator of Fugea, told AFP.
Certainly, Brussels has proposed measures to restrict Ukrainian imports, already approved by the Twenty-Seven and now discussed in the European Parliament.
Without satisfying the agricultural sector: Ukrainian sugar, poultry and eggs would be capped, but at the 2022/2023 levels, considered much too high, and this restriction does not concern cereals.
The subject remains explosive: after paralyzing the Ukrainian border, angry Polish farmers began to block an important border crossing with Germany on Sunday.
Vincent Delobel denounces “the law of the jungle in terms of prices”: “We can’t make a living from it. And the CAP bonuses just come as an infusion”.
© 2024 AFP
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