MEPs approve emergency aid for organic farming

271 million euros were urgently released to support organic agriculture. MPs approved the provision of aid on Monday, by adopting a transpartisan amendment against the government's advice.

The amendment was approved by 25 votes for (20 against), as part of the examination of the expenditure section of the 2024 finance bill. But it is unlikely that it will remain in the government's final copy, which can choose the amendments it wishes when having a financial text adopted via 49.3, which will probably be the case once again. Forty-six deputies from seven groups in the National Assembly, including Renaissance and the MoDem which belong to the majority, had co-signed the text, which requests “271 million euros to compensate for the losses of the sectors” milk, pork, large crops and fruits and vegetables in 2023.

This situation leads to “significant desires for deconversion”, warned Gers MP David Taupiac (Liot). Without contesting the existence of an organic "crisis", the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, stressed that it was a crisis of "demand", that it is a question of supporting in particular through public procurement, as the State is doing to the tune of 100 million euros.