On the sidelines of discussions on aid to Ukraine, the agricultural question will also animate the debates between heads of state and government gathered Thursday in Brussels.
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Officially, the extraordinary European summit which is being held on Thursday February 1 in Brussels (Belgium) is dedicated to Ukraine. But the leaders will also address another crisis which is shaking the Twenty-Seven: that of the agricultural world. Angry at certain standards imposed within the European Union, competition judged “disloyal” from third countries, worried about seeing their incomes decrease further in the future, European farmers have demonstrated in recent weeks in France, Germany, Poland, Romania, Belgium and even Italy.
On the sidelines of the extraordinary summit, French President Emmanuel Macron will notably meet with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on the measures to be taken. Here are the main points that raise expectations among operators.
Relaxation of the fallow obligation
The fallows of anger. To receive aid from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), farms larger than 10 hectares must devote 4% of their arable land to these virtuous environmental practices. This resting of part of the fields aims to avoid soil exhaustion, establishing hedges, groves or ponds to restore the biodiversity that develops in these ecosystems.
However, the European Commission initially suspended this obligation until the end of 2023, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Indeed, European farmers had to produce more to compensate for the supply disruptions linked to this war.
A majority of EU countries, including France, are now asking the European executive to extend the derogation. For many French farmers, this return of the so-called obligation “fallows” unacceptable. The majority FNSEA denounces a short-term drop in revenue.
Conversely, the Peasant Confederation, classified on the left, does not consider this threat to be serious. She therefore considers this outcry against a standard intended to ensure the sustainability of crops by protecting the soil is a matter of “total demagoguery”.
Keen not to give up on its environmental ambitions, thehe European Commission proposed a compromise on Wednesday. The exemption can be extended for 2024 for farmers who reach 7% of intermediate or nitrogen-fixing crops, the European executive said on Wednesday.
Protection against Ukrainian poultry imports
To help Kiev and its economy paralyzed by war, Ukrainian agricultural products, primarily cereals, eggs, sugar, but also poultry, have been exempt from customs duties since spring 2022. . VSThis measure was recently extended until 2024, to the great regret of farmers. They denounce the explosion imports of Ukrainian chicken into the EU of more than 127% in 2023 on meat fresh, compared to the previous year. In front of this situation, Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday that he wanted “regulate” the arrival “from a poultry which was much cheaper coming from Ukraine”.
“Even though our monitoring does not show any negative impact on the entire European market, we are aware of more localized effects,” admitted Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas on Wednesday. Thus, Brussels is proposing to renew this exemption from customs duties until June 2025, but this time with additional “safeguard measures” strengthened, in order to limit the repercussions for EU farmers.
Resumption of negotiations on the EU-Mercosur agreement
Emmanuel Macron intends to reaffirm on Thursday his opposition to the free trade agreement between the EU and the South American Mercosur countries, which the Commission wants to sign. Concretely, this agreement provides forincrease trade between the two common markets by removing 91% of taxes imposed on European products crossing the Atlantic and 92% of taxes imposed on products traveling the other way.
Until recent days, negotiations continued. But on Wednesday, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, promised that France would engage in a “arm wrestling” during the negotiations in Brussels for the EU-Mercosur agreement (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay) “as it is today, do not be signed”. “This agreement, as it stands, is not good for our breeders. It cannot and must not be signed as is.” he insisted on CNews-Europe 1.
The conditions of an agreement between Mercosur and the EU “are not united”, recognized for its part the European Commission. However, she specifies that negotiations continue.
This political agreement was concluded in 2019, but opposition from several countries, including France, blocked final adoption. Lhe concessions negotiated over twenty years between the two parties immediately aroused the anger of European farmers, who denounced unfair competition and “deception” towards the consumer.