BrusselsFarmers are protesting and blocking roads across the European Union, and the June 6-9 European elections are just around the corner. In this context, the head of the community executive, the conservative Ursula von der Leyen, has already made different political gestures towards the agricultural and livestock sector, although she has been the main driver of the EU’s ambitious green plan, which it even had its own party against it. In this sense, the German leader announced this Tuesday in the European Parliament that Brussels will withdraw the controversial legislative proposal on the sustainable use of pesticides.
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In fact, the processing of this law, which aimed to reduce the use of chemical pesticides by 50% and end the most dangerous ones by 2030, has failed due to the lack of consensus between the European Commission itself, the Eurochamber and the states members It raised a lot of dust because, according to European agri-food pressure groups, the regulations endangered the food security of the European bloc, especially in the midst of the war in Ukraine, and made the lives of professionals in the sector even more financially complicated.
Von der Leyen has promised to listen to the farming sector and take it into account in the next legislative approach to regulate pesticides. “The Commission will be able to make a new, much more mature proposal, with the involvement of all interested parties. […] Our farmers deserve to be heard,” said the president of the community executive.
The conservative leader has also insisted that it is necessary to carry out the green transition without it being detrimental to the farming economy. “Our farmers will only invest in the future if they can live off their land, and they can only continue to live off their land if we all achieve the environmental goals,” he added.
However, be that as it may, Von der Leyen is in no way giving up on continuing to deploy his ambitious green plan, and this Tuesday he also plans to present a proposal to reduce 90% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 compared to at the levels of 1990. Of course, with some concessions to the demands of farmers and ranchers from all over Europe, including Catalans. For example, it will not require the agricultural sector to reduce emissions by 30% between 2015 and 2040 as part of these climate goals, as it predicted before the wave of protests.
In the same vein, at the meeting of the twenty-seven heads of state and government last Thursday, while Brussels was blocked by hundreds of tractors, Von der Leyen also announced that in the coming weeks he will present a regulatory proposal to reduce the administrative burden on farmers, which is one of the major demands of the sector.
The European ones are coming
The European elections are approaching and all parties want to make political profit from the indignation of the peasantry, especially the right and the extreme right. For example, the president of the European People’s Party (EPP), Manfred Weber, has been one of the strongest and most critical voices against Von der Leyen’s green plan, which is from his own party. This is because, according to polls and in various state elections, the traditional conservative formations are losing votes from rural areas all over Europe to the benefit of the extreme right, which aims to establish itself as the great defender of the primary sector.
On the other hand, the left and Von der Leyen herself, who on Tuesday once again asked not to “polarize” Europeans between the energy transition or the defense of farming, have so far chosen to keep a lower profile on this issue . Last week, however, different European leaders already came out to defend farmers and, for example, one of the most prominent voices of the European left, Pedro Sánchez, vindicated, and very much, European farming and especially the products of all over the State. “The Spanish tomato is unbeatable,” he repeated in a press conference.
2024-02-06 10:40:20
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