Farmers unite against EU rules and globalised markets

Issued on: 30/01/2024 – 17:28Modified: 30/01/2024 – 17:32

3 min

Nationwide protests have been roiling Europe’s largest agricultural producer since mid-January, with French farmers angry, in part, over EU regulations and environmental policies they say are rendering them incapable of competing in an increasingly globalised world market.  

Farmers have used tractors, trucks and hay bales to block major highways and obstruct traffic across France. They encircled Paris on Monday, with the intention of blocking several key routes into the capital.

Rural Coordination was established in 1992, in part, to oppose the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and international free-trade agreements. More radical than the nation’s main FNSEA union, Rural Coordination has favoured street protests to negotiations over the past 30 years.

It is now the country’s second-most-important farmers’ union, representing some 20% of French farmers. Rural Coordination member Damien Brunelle spoke to FRANCE 24 about the farmers’ extended protest and their attempts to secure a future in an increasingly globalised world.

What has been Rural Coordination’s role in these protests and what are its grievances? 

With this movement, we’ve seen many people protesting who are not unionised. The anger is widespread. The protest was originally launched following the government’s move to increase taxes on agricultural diesel, but there are other reasons for it as well.

The prices of agricultural products are falling because we are flooded with products from Eastern European countries, including Ukraine. On top of this, we have regulations. France, for example, has completely banned a class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids. (The insecticides were banned by the EU in 2018, and France’s State Council ruled banned them in 2023 after several years of exemption.)

Britain’s farmers are allowed to use the insecticide because they left the European Union. What’s absurd is that we are talking about 17 grams of insecticide for every 10,000 square metres – it’s a miniscule amount, like a vaccine, that helps protect beets in the first 60 days. The EU is deaf and blind. It would be better to leave, over certain issues; the upcoming European elections will show this. I don’t mean we should leave the EU, but there should be smarter regulations.

How can the government bring an end to the farmers’ protest? 

Farmers would like advantages like those that French culture enjoys: French films, [actor] Jean Dujardin, television –they all benefit from a system of protectionism. (Known as the French Exception, aspects of culture are not subject to the same rules as other goods and services under international treaties, notably with the World Trade Organization.) French agriculture, on the other hand, is subject to competing on a completely globalised market. We dream of obtaining an “agricultural exception”. If the market were well-regulated, it would be good for everyone.

Europe recently signed a free exchange treaty with Chile and New Zealand. Why do we need to import meat from South America? I understand we get lithium from Chile. But French agriculture can’t be bartered away.

What will be the political repercussions of the protests as European elections approach?

Certain politicians will use these lovely protests to advance their political careers. We don’t want to be absorbed by a political party. But if a politician wants to use our ideas, that’s a good thing. Our aim at Rural Coordination is to stay independent. We’ve never told people how to vote.

At the annual International Agricultural Show in Paris three weeks from now, politicians will show up to slap the cows’ backsides, and all the media attention will be on us. Then the show will be over. And everyone will forget us.

Public opinion is with us for the moment, but in the days to come we really need to be careful. Some farmers are really at the end of their ropes … a woman was killed in a traffic collision at a protest barricade. Our protest is important, but people’s lives are more important.