French farmers' unions are pushing for an end to roadblocks amid government proposals

France's main farmers' unions called for an end to roadblocks across the country on Thursday after expressing cautious satisfaction at a series of new government announcements to appease them, in the first sign of a possible reprieve after more than a week of protests that disrupted traffic across the country.

It was not immediately clear whether the roughly 10,000 farmers at the hundred or so barricades would heed the union leaders' call and return home after days of blocking major roads with tractors and hay bales, including in Paris, to express a wide range of in-depth criticism. rooted grievances.

The unions said they would closely monitor government promises of new financial support and an easing of regulations ahead of a major agricultural fair in Paris this month.

“The action does not end,” Arnaud Rousseau, president of the National Federation of Farmers' Unions (FNSEA), France's largest and most powerful farmers' union, said at a news conference in Paris. “It's transforming.”

The move came despite expressions of wider anger against European Union agricultural policies and environmental rules in neighboring Belgium, where thousands of farmers protested on the edge of a meeting of EU leaders, throwing eggs and fireworks at police, who responded with water cannons. Farmer protests have also broken out in recent weeks PortugalGermany and Greece.

“We are experiencing an agricultural crisis in Europe, and have been for months,” President Emmanuel Macron of France said at a news conference in Brussels on Thursday. The coronavirus pandemic, the war in Ukraine and climate change have caused “huge disruptions” for European farmers, he added.

“We must fundamentally change the rules,” Macron said.

Mr Macron said he had asked Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, to create the EU equivalent of a French law overseeing price negotiations between farmers, the food industry and retailers. He also argued that the bloc needed to better enforce “mirror clauses” in free trade deals to ensure imports from other countries follow the same environmental and sanitary rules as Europe.

So far, farmers' unions have been skeptical that the European Union can change quickly.

“We are not going to solve 20 to 25 years of bad decisions in ten days,” Arnaud Gaillot, president of Jeunes Agriculteurs, France's second-largest farmers' union, said at the news conference in Paris.

The FNSEA's Mr Rousseau contrasted the “alertness” of Gabriel Attal – Macron's newly appointed prime minister, who has spent much of the past week trying to appease the farmers – with the “deafness” of the European Union.

“Europe is our future,” Mr Rousseau said at the press conference in Paris. But he added: “We do not understand this technocratic Europe.”

Previous attempts by Macron's government to appease farmers had largely failed. Vine growers, grain growers, ranchers, fruit and vegetable producers and others have complained of becoming buried in environmental problems and administrative paperwork as they struggle to earn a living wage.

But on Thursday, the two main farmers' unions hailed “tangible progress” after a new round of announcements that added to the growing list of concessions made by the government over the past week to curb protesters' anger.

Mr Attal said France would give livestock farmers an aid package worth 150 million euros ($163 million), push for a clearer EU-wide definition of lab-grown synthetic meat, a national plan to cut pesticide use would temporarily suspend urging and ban the use of pesticides. import of foreign products treated with thiacloprid, a pesticide already banned in France.

He said the government would ensure that France was not overzealous in implementing EU rules – which farmers say lead to unfair competition from abroad – and that it would enshrine the concept of “food sovereignty” in French law, though he did not discuss any obligations or rules this may entail.

“Our French agricultural exception is not just a budgetary issue, but a matter of pride and identity for the country,” Mr Attal said.

Bruno Le Maire, France's economy minister, also said the government would carry out “large-scale controls” and crack down on companies that misleadingly advertise their products as “Made in France” – with French flags on the packaging, for example – or who ignore their products. laws designed to ensure that farmers are paid fairly in negotiations with retailers and distributors.

Other measures announced by the government include financial help for beginning farmers and tax breaks for retirees who pass their businesses on to younger generations.

From Brussels, Mr Macron welcomed one European Commission proposal limit the impact of Ukrainian imports – a major source of anger among the bloc's farmers – by creating a “enhanced safeguard mechanism” to resolve disruptions caused by the influx of Ukrainian grain and by imposing tariffs on Ukrainian goods such as eggs , poultry and sugar above certain volumes.

However, the government's relaxation of pesticide rules has angered environmental groups and green politicians. Marie Toussaint, a European parliamentarian and France's leading candidate in the upcoming European Parliament elections, called them an “unacceptable step backwards” and a “poisoned gift to the farming world.”

“The essential change in our agricultural model will not happen unless we rid agriculture of its dependence on toxins,” Ms Toussaint said. on the social media platform X.

But union leaders welcomed the measures and said they would monitor their progress. Mr. Gaillot of Jeunes Agriculteurs said at the press conference that if things move too slowly, “we will not hesitate to return to a general mobilization movement.”