what concessions have they already obtained from the government, and what are they still asking for?

The government has already announced several economic support and administrative simplification measures. But professional organizations are demanding to go further.

“We will not relieve the pressure as long as the commitments [du gouvernement] will not be held, warned the president of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau, on RTL, Thursday February 15. A few days before the Agricultural Show, the memory of the massive national mobilizations in the profession at the end of January is still in everyone’s minds. The barriers were lifted at the beginning of February after a series of announcements, and on condition of compliance with a list of additional requirements, but some believe that their realization is too slow. What have the farmers already achieved? And what else do they ask? Franceinfo takes stock.

What farmers have already achieved

Among Gabriel Attal’s main announcements, a package of emergency financial aid for a total amount of 400 million euros. They are distributed in particular between breeders (150 million euros in tax and social support), wine growers (an emergency fund quadrupled to reach 80 million euros), and the organic sector (50 million euros), among others.

The Prime Minister announced a strengthening of the Egalim laws, which aim to protect farmers’ income. The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, said he had identified 124 contracts, signed between manufacturers and distributors, which do not respect these laws and sent injunctions to these companies.

To attract young people, the government also announced the reduction of inheritance taxes by raising the exemption thresholds. Another highly demanded financial measure concerned non-road diesel (NGR), the fuel used by agricultural vehicles. The government abandoned the planned tax increase on this fuel and promised that the tax advantage that farmers benefit from would be applied upon delivery, without the need to request a refund after the fact, from July.

The Prime Minister also promised ten immediate measures to “administrative simplification”, to speed up, for example, procedures for cleaning waterways, the construction of livestock buildings or water storage projects. He is committed to putting “end of the exceptional regime for appeal deadlines against agricultural projects”as well as “delete a level of jurisdiction” in proceedings concerning farmers, citing in particular disputes concerning water reservoirs or agricultural buildings.

Traveling in Marne on Thursday, Gabriel Attal clarified that“around sixty prefectural decrees” had already been “amended or repealed”. The Prime Minister also accepted the principle of a monthly meeting with the unions to monitor the application of the desire for normative simplification. Meetings “took place in all department prefectures” For “raise simplification proposals” orders, specified the office of the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau.

Pesticide reduction standards were also targeted by certain unions. Gabriel Attal has already announced the temporary suspension of the Ecophyto plan, which aims to halve the use of pesticides by 2030, “time to put in place a new indicator”.

Many farmers also called for measures at international level, with a reduction in European rules and protection against “unfair competition” foreign. The European Commission has already adopted a partial exemption from the fallow rules for 2024. The government also recalled France’s opposition to the trade agreement currently being negotiated between the EU and the Latin American Mercosur countries.

What farmers are still asking

While this set of announcements has been welcomed by professional organizations, many believe that they do not go far enough. The Rural Coordination, for example, denounced the complex conditions of access to promised compensation and demands “the assurance that no one is left on the side of the road”. She also asks to go further on the subject of taxes on GNR and inheritance taxes: in both cases, she pleads for their outright abolition.

To go further than the application of the Egalim laws, the Peasant Confederation called for inclusion in the law “the prohibition of transactions below the cost price, that is to say production costs, remuneration and social protection”.

The president of the FNSEA, the majority union, demanded details on the “big plan” for breeding announced by the government, considering that“we cannot talk about food sovereignty and see beef imports continue to increase” In France.

Certain categories of operators also consider themselves harmed by the announcements. Sheep breeders gathered in front of the Ministry of the Economy on Tuesday, saying they were “the great forgotten ones of the agricultural exception” while emergency aid to breeders “mainly concern cattle”. At the same time, milk producers demonstrated between the National Assembly and the Eiffel Tower, demanding better remuneration.

Internationally too, farmers are demanding more. The Peasant Confederation asks France “the cessation of free trade treaty negotiations”. “Imported products must be subject to the same standards” than French products, once again put forward the boss of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau. Many want the adoption of a “European Equal”to prevent manufacturers from using European competition to pay French producers less.

Standards against the use of pesticides are also in the sights of most organizations. Rural Coordination demands that France “obtain the immediate renegotiation of the CAP [Politique agricole commune]“which conditions the payment of aid on certain environmental standards. “Ecology is what we do in our fields, we have already made a lot of efforts. Let us produce”, declares its co-president Karine Duc. The Peasant Confederation, going against the grain, demands a “strong support for the agroecological transition” and the reaffirmation “essential” of an ambitious pesticide reduction trajectory.

If the trade union organizations therefore continue to request new announcements, their speech also concerns the strict and rapid application of the promises made by the government to obtain the lifting of the blockades. They hope “A clear schedule“ for the application of the measures, and a “software change”. Messages that the Rural Coordination and the Peasant Confederation were able to transmit to Emmanuel Macron, who received them separately at the Elysée on Wednesday. The President of the Republic must still meet with the FNSEA before the opening of the Agricultural Show.