Single administrative control is a good measure, but it is insufficient, in the opinion of Breton farmers, the day after the announcement of their minister, Annie Genevard, traveling to the Paris region. “We forget to say that they continue to control us by satellite and that we could go from 20 to 100% of farms controlled per year… We have been promised so many things that we are not going to declare victory too quickly,” tempers Véronique Le Floch, the Breton president of Rural Coordination. His union continued to carry out actions on Thursday evening in Haute-Saône.
Beyond the promise of a maximum control per year for all administrations combined and excluding legal procedures, for the FNSEA, the placement of this annual control under the authority of the prefect nevertheless appears to be a guarantee of confidence, according to Jean Alain Divanac' h, the president of the FDSEA of Finistère.
Against the backdrop of the Mercosur agreement
In any case, this Thursday's announcement will not be enough to reassure Breton farmers as Europe prepares to sign the trade agreement with Mercosur. Already, FNSEA and JA are promising actions on the subject from mid-November.
Competing for the next elections to the chambers of agriculture, the two main agricultural unions are also in agreement on at least one point: if agricultural mobilizations have not resumed in Brittany, it is because there remains still work in the fields to harvest corn and prepare for winter sowing. “The young people are ready to go. If we are not heard, we are not going to laugh,” insists Véronique Le Floch, recalling the mobilization of the yellow hats of the Coordination “for more than a year”.
Administrative rules and agricultural income
Under these conditions, the return of the agricultural orientation bill, coupled with a bill brought by Laurent Duplomb, before the Senate, is considered a favorable sign in the countryside. But again not sufficient given the adoption deadlines.
The FNSEA calls on the minister to “quickly” issue a series of decrees and orders on the files on her desk which do not need to be integrated into the PLOA. This is particularly the case for sensitive questions concerning the simplification of administrative rules on nitrates, the supervision of classified installations or town planning. They weigh on the daily lives of farmers.
The Coordination, for its part, calls on the government to establish tax and energy shields in particular, making agricultural income its priority after an overly rainy year marked by poor harvests. The ball remains in the government's court.
