It is an emergency procedure to respond to the anger of farmers. This Wednesday, April 24, MEPs voted hastily for a revision of the rules of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which will be relieved of certain constraints aimed at preserving the environment. This vote was unanimous on the right and in the center of the European hemicycle, but aroused the anger of part of the left and environmentalists.
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With our special correspondent in Strasbourg, Daniel Vallot
Among the measures adopted, MEP Anne Sander (LR) welcomed the end of fallows and crop rotation. The accepted idea is to return to environmental constraints to respond to the anger of farmers. “ What must be remembered, generally in this text, is that we change the state of mind, because and the CAP and the European Green Deal were so restrictive for the agricultural world. There, the idea is really to soften and introduce flexibility “, she said.
An unraveling according to the left
On the left, we denounce an unraveling of the rare environmental measures negotiated within the framework of the CAP. This step backwards is disastrous in the eyes of Benoît Biteau, from Europe ecologie-Les Verts. “ Today, he said, rather than observing that climate change threatens both food sovereignty and the competitiveness of agriculture, we are in the process of erasing all the measures which made it possible to preserve what could tomorrow be the basis of competitiveness income and food sovereignty. On the contrary, we should accelerate the movement to protect them from all this and at least pay farmers so that they can continue to produce. “, says the MP.
Very bitter, environmentalists are rebelling against a text botched in a few weeks which will nevertheless call into question achievements negotiated over several years.