France turns up heat on Brussels to address farmer protests

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France is increasing pressure on the European Commission to address complaints raised by protesting farmers, including about imports from Ukraine and a trade deal being negotiated with Latin American countries.

As farmers in France continue to blockade highways and disrupt food supplies, President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday pledged to defend their interests “not by opposing or pointing to Europe as the culprit” but by asking for EU policy reforms. “At the European level, we must have a policy that is consistent with the food sovereignty that we defend.”

Macron reiterated France’s long-standing concerns that a free trade deal with the Mercosur group of countries — Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay — would lead to imports that do not respect European standards, such as on antibiotic usage on chicken farms. “We ask that the agreement as it is in place not be signed,” he said.

Macron’s comments come as farmers in France protest about rising costs, falling profits and new regulations as Brussels tries to cut carbon emissions and improve biodiversity. Similar protests are also starting in Belgium where farmers on Tuesday moved to block a key port, while German farmers have also blocked motorways and prevented a minister from disembarking a ferry.

Among farmers’ grievances are local and EU regulations, while in France, Poland, Slovakia and Romania, they have also objected to cheaper imports from Ukraine flooding their markets. After the Russian invasion in 2022, the EU agreed to lift tariffs on Ukrainian grain and produce, which have lower production costs and do not have to follow EU standards.

On the issue of agricultural imports from Ukraine, another irritant for farmers, Macron said he would raise it at the summit as well because they were “destabilising the European market” for chicken and eggs.

Poland and Hungary have for several months imposed unilateral import bans on grain and some other foodstuffs from Ukraine, which can only transit their territory on the way to other markets. The EU countries neighbouring Ukraine are pushing for extra safeguards when the bloc renews its deal with Kyiv for another year from June.

The commission is expected to propose parameters for a renewal of the trade measures on Wednesday and discussions continue on whether to include quotas on eggs, poultry meat and sugar. One EU diplomat said any quotas would cap imports at the average annual level of 2022 and 2023. Poland is expected to lift its embargo if this is agreed.

The farmers’ protests, and the desire for EU governments to extract concessions from Brussels required to placate them, were set to gatecrash an EU leaders’ summit on Thursday designed to focus on aid to Ukraine. Macron said he would meet the head of the commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to discuss agricultural and trade issues on the sidelines of the summit.

Leaders from countries with farmer protests are co-ordinating ahead of the summit, people briefed on the discussions told the FT, and would bring a united front demanding flexibility from the commission.

Among the concerns raised at protests across the bloc is the rigidity of rules governing what agricultural activities are eligible for EU subsidies. “Farmers across the EU need support if they are going to be a part of the green transition,” said one of the people. “So it’s a co-ordinated approach between capitals [ahead of the summit].”

Brussels hands around €60bn annually to farmers through the Common Agricultural Policy, in what is the biggest single chunk of the EU budget, and it has been tightening green standards to qualify for the subsidies.

The commission appeared to cede on one demand made recently by France and a coalition that Paris said included 22 member states: to push back the reintroduction of an EU requirement for farmers to leave 4 to 7 per cent of their land fallow to protect biodiversity. The rule had been suspended since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine to boost farm production, but was supposed take effect this year.

Von der Leyen’s spokesman Eric Mamer on Tuesday said the commission would renew the exemption to allow farmers to plant on the land. The exact details might change, he said.

On the Mercosur trade deal, Mamer said talks would continue despite France’s renewed push against it, but added that an agreement was not imminent. “The negotiations are ongoing but we are not there,” he said.

EU officials suggested the talks could be strung out beyond June elections for the European parliament, and wait for the political heat to die down.

France, the biggest agricultural producer in the EU, has long opposed finalising a deal provisionally agreed in 2019 but Macron has been increasingly vocal about it in recent months, arguing that the pact would be bad for the environment and French farmers. In other EU countries too, agriculture groups have objected to the deal’s increased quotas for meat and produce from Latin America.

Trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis in December told the FT he could push the deal through without France given that it requires support from a majority of member states, not unanimity.

Other member states including Germany, Spain and Sweden are in favour of the deal. “We still hope negotiations will continue and French tractors in the street won’t stop it,” said an EU diplomat. 

“The vast majority of member states want this deal. We are concerned about these reports,” said another. 

Additional reporting by Henry Foy in Brussels