![]() ![]() “We have to make sure that Europe will become a continent which will be habitable, also, in the future,” he added. Their critics say EU farmers are among the most cosseted sectors in the industry, with more than €307bn (£260bn) – 30% of the overall EU budget – earmarked for them between 20.Īsked if Wednesday’s concession would be enough to quell the protests, Šefčovič admitted that the EU had to “intensify” the dialogue with farmers to make sure they were listened to. They have concerns about the high cost of land, the pressure from supermarkets to sell crops at near-cost prices, and the plethora of new environment rules coming in the form of EU nature restoration laws. Until now, farmers have not been impressed with the quick fixes offered by politicians or officials in Brussels. He added that not all of the demands could be immediately answered “so I’m trying to call for calm and reason”. Our message is: Buy French produce, make that effort.”Īfter days spent calling for higher incomes, less red tape and protection from foreign competition, “there are huge expectations” among farmers, said Arnaud Rousseau, the head of France’s largest agricultural union, the FNSEA. ![]() Virgile, a farmer demonstrating, told BFMTV: “This is about the anger of country people being treated by fools. At a farmers’ roadblock in Cavaillon in the south, foreign produce, including Italian kiwifruit and pears, was unloaded from lorries. The Créteil prosecutor’s office outside Paris said that 15 of the 18 farmers arrested near Rungis were in custody being questioned by police.įrench farmers also blocked roads around Lyon. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images View image in fullscreen French farmers maintain roadblocks on key highways into Paris. The French interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, had warned that while farmers’ protests on motorways would be tolerated, police would not allow them to block airports or Rungis, Europe’s largest fresh food market. On Wednesday, French farmers from the south-west of the country managed to get around police barriers south of Paris by taking back-roads or switching from tractors to trucks in order to reach the area near the Rungis food market. The change comes as farm protests have been intensifying, in the past 24 hours. However, under the new proposals, farmers will not be obliged to set aside fallow land, or any portion of land for catch crops, until 2025. Under the rules, farmers were expected to keep 4% of their arable land free from crop production in an effort to regenerate the health of the soil and increase biodiversity, which is also in crisis.Īlternatively, farmers could have got an exemption from this “set-aside” rule if they had used 7% of their land for “catch crops” such as clover, which provide cover for the soil after the main crop is harvested. “We have had a number of extreme meteorological events, droughts, flooding in various parts of Europe, and there was a clear negative effect on the output, on the revenue – and of course, decreased income – for the farmers.”Ĭombined with higher energy prices, the weather-related risks to crops meant farmers were at a “persistent pain point” that was “driving up the cost of production and squeezing revenues”, Šefčovič said. “We feel we are obliged to act under this pressure which the farming community ,” he said. The European Commission vice-president, Maroš Šefčovič, described Wednesday’s decision to delay rules on setting aside land, which is expected to be rubber-stamped by member states within 15 days, as “a helping hand” for the sector at a difficult time.Ĭiting flooding, wildfires in Greece, heatwaves across southern Europe and drought in Spain which has left reservoirs in Andalucia at 20% normal levels, he said it was important to listen to farmers and “to avoid the polarisation which is making any good conversation and discussion more difficult. ![]() View image in fullscreen Farmers drive tractors during a protest at Melegnano toll booth, near Milan, Italy.
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