By Sudip Kar-Gupta and Tassilo Hummel, for Reuters
Farmers drive their tractors on the ring road of Rennes, western France, on 1 February as part of nationwide protests. Photo: SEBASTIEN SALOM-GOMIS
France's main farmer union leaders on Thursday called on their peers to lift roadblocks that have disrupted traffic across the country for more than two weeks, saying the government has listened to the protests and it was "time to go home".
"We say we should transform the action, by telling people they need to go home because there are also people who have jobs to do, there are also people who have been away from home for a very long time," Arnaud Rousseau, head of the FNSEA union, said.
In his latest speech aimed at easing tensions with angry farmers, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal earlier said France would enshrine in law the principle that it should be self-reliant in food and it will tighten import controls.
Attal, speaking at a press conference, also said the government will stop imposing stricter regulation on its farmers than European Union regulations require.
"It makes no sense to ban pesticides in France before such decisions are taken on an EU level. We will end this practice," he said.
Detailing his agenda to boost France's agricultural sector - Europe's largest - Attal said it was "out of the question" that France would agree to the Mercosur trade deal with Latin American countries.
He also said France will step up safety checks on food imports, notably to make sure that imported foods do not have traces of pesticides that are banned in France or the EU.
The finance ministry said the new emergency measures for the sector - focused largely on supporting struggling livestock farmers and wine producers - would cost 400 million euros ($NZ722m) plus 200 million euros in cash advances.
Union leaders said after the speech that their call to end the roadblocks came with the condition that the promises be followed by concrete progress.
They said they would give the government a three-week deadline until the start of France's giant Salon de l'Agriculture farming trade fare for the first results to show.
"From Monday, we're going to get to work in the prefectures and ministries to work on all the points that have been announced," Arnaud Gaillot, the head of the Young Farmers (Jeunes Agriculteurs) union, said.
In a sign the calls to end the roadblocks were heard, Veronique Le Floc'h of the smaller Coordination Rurale union said her comrades would now pack their things and go home.
"Now, we are going to take a break," she said.
It was unclear if the all farmers on France's streets followed the guidance given by the two main sector labour representatives. Many farmers are not union members.
As Attal spoke, motorways all over France remained blocked by tractors, while in Brussels, farmers set fire to garbage and toppled a statue in a square in the European quarter during an EU summit.
Speaking during a news conference following the summit, French President Emmanuel Macron said the EU needs to "profoundly" change its agriculture rules if it wants to address its farming crisis as protests spread across the bloc.
- This story was first published by Reuters