Hundreds of tractors paralyze the center of Brussels on Monday, on the sidelines of a meeting of Agriculture Ministers of the Twenty-Seven paving the way for simplifications of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Like 1er February, the Belgian capital becomes the epicenter of agricultural anger: some 900 agricultural vehicles were counted by the police, who barricaded the surroundings of the European Council.
She used water cannons to extinguish the fires lit by demonstrators, leading to tense confrontations. Delegations from Spain, Portugal and the powerful Italian Coldiretti confederation rubbed shoulders with Belgian organizations.
Under pressure, member states demanded from the European Commission a plan to “simplify” the CAP rules. Brussels presents its first ideas on Monday.
But among the demonstrators met by AFP in Brussels, exasperation dominates.
“We have been protesting for months, they keep procrastinating, nothing happens,” annoys Marieke Van de Vivere, who works on the family farm, criticizing the regulatory “madness”.
“We have to pay for the horse that produces droppings, the “Green Pact” orders us how to manage the droppings, where it goes… It’s totally mind-boggling,” she sighs.
“So much bureaucracy that we cannot continue to produce. We need a policy guaranteeing profitability, generational change […] And we have no control over imports from third countries,” adds Adoración Blanque, from Young Spanish Farmers.
After an exemption already approved for fallow land, the obligations to maintain permanent meadows could be relaxed for breeders undergoing reconversion. Several states are also asking for flexibilities on crop rotation.
A tolerance would be granted to farmers not respecting the CAP criteria due to climatic episodes. Finally, reporting requirements would be reduced and inspection visits halved.
Beyond these short-term measures, which the European executive could quickly ratify, Brussels opens the door to “medium-term” legislative revisions of the CAP, in negotiation with States and MEPs, to modify certain provisions and ” reduce the load.
In the immediate future, “we need something pragmatic, operational […]there is space [pour des modifications] within current rules,” said French Minister Marc Fesneau upon his arrival.
“But certain things require modifying the basic act. Whether this legislative change spans the European elections (in June) does not matter. The important thing is that we are moving forward: we need to set a trajectory, lay the foundations for a CAP which is reassuring” in the long term, he insisted.
At the same time, Paris is calling for the reopening — through amendments in the European Parliament — of legislation restricting polluting emissions from poultry and pig farms.
“Bureaucratic monster”
“There is a lot of anger over broken promises: the current CAP is a bureaucratic monster” and reforms are “necessary” to favor “work in the fields rather than paperwork,” declared German Minister Cem Özdemir.
But without “false solutions”: “We must guarantee that we can make money from biodiversity. Anyone who advocates a pause in climate protection is anything but the friend of farmers,” he warns, while the specter of an unraveling of ecological obligations looms large.
Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said he was open to simply making several green bonds “incentivizing” (fallow, crop rotation, etc.)
A review of agricultural policy “is a good thing” to “better remunerate” farmers, believes Belgian Minister David Clarinval, recalling that the Commission will also propose measures in March on “price formation”.
“There are elements [des législations] of the Green Deal which are asked of farmers but not paid, this is the heart of the problem,” he added.
Agricultural organizations are demanding a “definitive end” to trade negotiations with the South American Mercosur countries, and a “better sharing of value” with manufacturers and distributors.
A structural project “larger than the small relief on administrative costs”, recognizes Vincent Delobel, goat breeder and administrator of the Walloon union Fugea, denouncing “an economic vice”: “We cannot live, the PAC bonuses come infusion”.
Another explosive subject: Brussels proposed measures to restrict Ukrainian imports, accused of hampering the markets, but without reassuring. In Poland, farmers are still blocking border crossings, dumping Ukrainian cargo on the roads.