President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday warned against blaming EU policies for the problems of farmers, as agriculture workers protested across France and elsewhere in Europe.
“We did a lot in the last years to help,” Macron said in Stockholm on a state visit to Sweden. “It would be too easy to blame everything on Europe.”
Speaking at a press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Macron argued problems in the industry were sometimes “structural and cyclical”, and pointed to issues such as poultry imports from Ukraine that he said should be better regulated at European Union level.
French farmers Tuesday maintained roadblocks on key highways into Paris for a second day, expressing their discontent on a wide variety of issues from prices to imports to EU rules.
Macron said without the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, French farmers would “have no revenue. We need to return to the truth.”
Macron said the farming industry also needed to understand the importance of tighter environmental regulations.
“We should not slip into ‘agri-bashing’, something I have denounced on several occasions, but we also cannot say that we can go on doing like we did before.”
He said European farming had gotten too reliant on the use of chemicals. “We are in the process of moving out of this model with new practices and a huge effort,” he said.
Macron said “we will try to simplify the rules in order to assist the agricultural sector” and also vowed to show “flexibility” on certain rules.
“As from the first day (of his mandate) I will continue to be by the side of our farmers,” he added.
In the same vein, Macron also sought to reassure French producers by saying France was against the extensive and long-negotiated trade deal between the European Union and South American trading bloc Mercosur.
“France is opposed to Mercosur because the regulations are not in line with ours,” said Macron, who is due to discuss the issue on Thursday with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
He said he would also discuss Ukrainian agricultural imports with her, saying that the quantity of Ukrainian poultry and cereals arriving in Europe was “destabilising the market”.
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