12
Dec
2022
Watch
A long-term vision for the EU's rural areas (debate)
Madam President, for decades the European Union has been striving to establish and promote free trade and globalisation. For this, it has multiplied the free trade treaties, which have been constantly impoverishing our agriculture and breaking up our industry. The impoverishment of our campaigns, which have been abandoned in favour of the start-up nation, in the words of our French President, is a direct consequence of this. On the world market, French or European agricultural and industrial products are no longer competitive. That is why our campaigns have been abandoned in favour of major cities. The findings are as follows: desertification of rural areas, catastrophic demography, closure of public services and persistence of white areas. However, these are realities largely attributable to EU policy. And what does it propose to remedy it? A rural pact, a rural test and a European rural observatory. But what are these terms? Rural Europeans are not laboratory rats that have to undergo tests and other observations. In addition, the CAP and the EAFRD exist for this purpose. I therefore infer that they do not work, since the Commission is proposing a new pact. Moreover, at a time when Mr Macron is planning to settle entire populations of migrants in our neglected countryside, the Commission is seriously considering basing its policy on, I quote, ‘inclusive communities of intergenerational solidarity, fairness and renewal, open to newcomers and promoting equal opportunities for all’. They're chimeras. In order to develop a healthy vision of rural areas, the European Union should question the ultra-liberalism and globalism that characterise it, in favour of smart protectionism and the relocation of activities in rural areas.