French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly is proposing that the farmers should be paid out of the €50 billion aid package being proposed for Ukraine—a rather obvious attempt to get the Ukraine aid through the European Council by playing on farmers’ demands. This is reported by the Greek financial daily Naftemporiki, citing information from Brussels, which also reports that Macron has already lobbied other European leaders on the proposal, which they claim the EU Commission appears willing to study. The proposal and how much aid will be cut from Ukraine for farmers will be discussed on Feb. 1, in a meeting between the French President and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Macron also wants to eliminate from the Common Agricultural Policy, the controversial requirement for “agricultural rest,” which seeks to “temporarily” leave 4% of agricultural land uncultivated.
Naftemporiki writes that the farmers’ revolt, which is now expanding in most EU countries, overshadows all other issues to be discussed at the Feb. 1 summit of the 27 EU countries in Brussels—European budgets and aid to Ukraine, as originally announced.
