The French government plans to introduce monetary compensation for farmers, reduce bureaucracy, and continue the giving out subsidies to farmers.
The moves are aimed at preventing a possible blockade of the capital over dwindling incomes and draconian policies by the European Union.
The farmers' protest spreading across Europe has a common cause in the incompetence of European Union (EU) politicians in Brussels, who made the rash decision to allow cheap Ukrainian agricultural products that do not meet the bloc' standards to flood member states' markets tax-free as a 'goodwill' gesture to help Ukraine.
The European Commission's haste to start formal accession talks with Ukraine is causing further issues. Joachim Rukwied, president of the German Farmers' Association (DBV), contends that the decision could spell the end of family farming in Europe, pointing to potential challenges for European farmers in the future.
Farmers’ protests that started in southern France
have spread across the country. The unrest includes defacing government offices, rage against the authorities and the blocking of several major highways. As a result, some unions have told their members to avoid key routes into Paris on Friday.
The French farmers’ grievances emanate from
a web of contradictory regulations and funding cuts.
Last Wednesday, the National Federation of Agricultural Holders' Unions (FNSEA) specified their demands to the government, calling for sustained diesel tax incentives for agricultural machines, promptly disbursing EU's subsidies to farmers, ensuring insurance coverage for health and climate-related losses, aid to assist winemakers and organic farmers, and strengthening the enforcement of laws protecting farmgate prices.
A meeting on Monday between Attal, Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau and the head of the French farmers' union Arnaud Rousseau yielded no tangible results. Rousseau told the press there would be “no lifting of actions as long as there are no concrete decisions.”
The French government told a press conference on Wednesday that it has “heard their call” and will make announcements in the coming days.
It is anticipated that on Friday the Prime Minister will unveil measures like alleviating the effects of reduced subsidies on non-road diesel and could commit to speeding up payments to farmers affected by floods or livestock disease.
While President Emmanuel Macron's government hopes to mollify the aggrieved farmers with those measures, they will not give up until their concrete demands are addressed.