Debate contributions by Benoit CASSART

Madam President, Commissioner, this CAP simplification package is moving in the right direction, with concrete progress. Thank you and congratulations. But let's not veil our face: Agriculture needs stronger policy decisions to give hope to young farmers. Indeed, the future CAP, with a budget cut by 20%, weakens a sector already under pressure. At the same time, the European Union is preparing to sign Mercosur, allowing the import of low-cost products that will drive down the price of our agricultural products. Consistency is what we need. A remunerative income for farmers will be achieved either through a reinforced CAP budget or by protecting our standards at the borders. The rest is pipe. Simplify, yes; weaken, no. The farmers who will be in Brussels on Thursday deserve to be heard. Let's defend our values and our food autonomy!

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, for the conflict between Airbus and Boeing, it was already European wines and cheeses that paid the bill. The European Union taxes Chinese electric cars, Beijing responds by targeting pork, cognac and European dairy products. To limit the damage of US tariffs on our cars, the European Union agrees to open its market to American pork, produced with additives banned from us. To open up the Mercosur market, some are prepared to sacrifice the European Union's meat sectors. We're walking on the head! Stop it! European agriculture must cease to be the adjustment variable in all trade disputes. I will not stop repeating it, Europe must defend its agriculture as a strategic sector in its own right, as well as its industry.

Mr President, Commissioner, the European Union has knelt against Donald Trump, it is indisputable, but there is no point in crying over the spilled milk. Let's ask ourselves why. And, above all, let's learn the lesson. How can we negotiate on an equal footing with Washington or Beijing when we need them to protect our borders, heat our homes or run our factories? As our strategic dependencies turn us into a bird for the cat, you continue by signing the agreement with Mercosur without a mirror clause, thus threatening our food sovereignty. Food is a geopolitical weapon. Ukraine has shown us this, Gaza reminds us of this cruelly every day. Continuing to sign unbalanced free trade agreements on the back of our agriculture is a serious and irreversible political mistake.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, investing in the army, yes! But agriculture is our first line of defence. No soldier can fight with an empty stomach. The Commission must maintain a strong agricultural budget and avoid the trap of renationalising the common agricultural policy. It is essential that this policy remains common in order to avoid a weakening of the internal market and our competitiveness. If we want to motivate our young people to take back our farms, it is imperative to aim for a more remunerative price through better coherence between our agricultural and trade policies. Our European standards are the highest in the world. Protect them and avoid unfair competition, such as environmental dumping. The reciprocity of our standards in free trade agreements is non-negotiable. Let us return to the Community preference of the fathers of Europe, in order to support a successful agriculture!

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Donald Trump's return to the White House is shaking multilateralism, shaking up global trade rules and destabilizing supply chains. Tariffs have become economic weapons. Globalization, often an undeniable source of wealth, is changing. Wealth no longer flows necessarily to the weakest. Environmental dumping is becoming a major competitive asset and some political leaders are no longer reliable. Faced with this drift, we must rethink our trade agreements to make them more balanced, protecting our vital interests and values, and ensuring our strategic autonomy. International trade is not limited to quotas, volumes and prices. It must find meaning, based on the theory of comparative advantages. It must once again become a tool of stability that pulls humanity upwards as well as a lever of sovereignty.

Mr President, Commissioner, the vision for agriculture is a turning point for our agriculture. Finally, we put farmers at the heart of the transition. This is an essential paradigm shift to ensure sustainable, competitive and resilient agriculture. Thank you. However, let me stress one crucial point: livestock farming. Our breeders face major challenges, and too many young people give up taking over farms. Without them, our food sovereignty is in jeopardy. Commissioner, would it be possible to set up a high-level group on animal husbandry, as is the case for wine? We need to find urgent solutions. Our cattle disappear every day a little more from our meadows.

Madam President, Commissioner, on several occasions we have sounded the alarm about the impact of the agreement with Mercosur on deforestation, biodiversity loss and health risks. Let us now look at the impact of this agreement on our strategic autonomy. The Draghi report highlighted the effectiveness of China and the United States vis-à-vis Europe. However, these two powers have both decided to protect their markets and their farmers to promote their food autonomy. As a reminder, the world population increased by 82 million mouths to feed in 2024. Being able to produce your food is a fundamental pillar of strategic autonomy. However, only 6% of farmers in the EU are under 35 years old. Commissioner, is it really reasonable to open the doors to less sustainable products from South America, when there is already no incentive for young Europeans to take over our farms? This agreement has nothing to do with CETA, which was a good agreement.

Mr President, Commissioner, global warming is faster and more intense than previously thought: for example, while bluetongue was believed to be behind us, many calves are now born brainless and blind, causing extremely heavy economic losses for European breeders. This is a very concrete consequence of global warming. On the other hand, on this particular day, Europe must worry about the implementation of the Trump administration’s agenda, which leaves the Paris Agreement and relaunches fossil fuels – a Trump administration that wants to protect its agriculture and industry with significant tariffs. In the face of this new situation, Europe must react: – First, it must preserve the economic health of its farms and businesses in order to ensure its strategic autonomy; – secondly, it must invest in new technologies to make our agriculture even more sustainable, as agriculture is one of the solutions to combat global warming; – Above all, Europe must stop being naive and have the courage to protect its agriculture and industry...

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I welcome the European Commission's approach to fair competition and to protecting our car industry. It needs it very much, as we can see in Belgium with the dramatic situation at Audi. This is, I hope, a historic moment: the end of naive Europe. However, I would like to draw your attention to two elements. First, if, as announced, the taxation of Chinese cars results in retaliatory measures on European agricultural products, such as meat, cheese or spirits, this should be taken into account and compensatory measures should be provided for the companies penalised. Secondly, if Europe has the courage to protect its industry from Chinese subsidies, it must also have the will to protect its agriculture from unfair competition from Mercosur. How can we imagine signing Mercosur without a mirror clause? You cannot ask European farmers to be both victims of free trade in the west and victims of protectionism in the east. We want consistency, please.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, another consequence of global warming is the exponential spread of vector-borne diseases in the livestock sector throughout Europe. For example, today, blue tongue disease serotype three causes tens of thousands of deaths on cattle and sheep farms in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Germany. This situation, combined with poor cereal yields and insufficient agricultural prices, will lead to a catastrophe in agricultural treasuries at the end of this year. We therefore call on the Commission, firstly, to adopt a European policy to combat vector-borne diseases, particularly as regards vaccination; secondly, centralised management at European level of the conditions for the movement of animals, instead of the current renationalisation in regulations and markets, which is totally contrary to the European spirit; thirdly, European ways of financing compensation for sectors threatened in the short term.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I support the call on the European Commission to launch a strategic reflection on the role of livestock farming based on sound scientific evidence. Livestock is an essential sector of our sustainable agriculture that we must widely support to make it more attractive, instead of systematically denigrating it. On the other hand, I note that, despite the inconsistency established by the relationship between our environmental and trade policies, the European Commission has decided to relaunch negotiations with Mercosur, without even addressing the issue of mirror clauses. This is unacceptable. Finally, this report demonstrates very clearly that agriculture is an essential sector for the EU economy and contributes to our strategic autonomy. I therefore expect the future Commission to recognise the role of agriculture in making it more competitive through a budget that lives up to our ambitions, a coherent trade policy and measures that support our young farmers.