Lawyers have called it undemocratic. The EU’s watchdog has found maladministration. Two years after a wave of farm protests swept across Europe, the political response that dismantled key environmental measures in the EU’s most expensive policy at breakneck speed has left an indelible mark on decision-making in Brussels. But just how this happened – and who had a place at the decision making table – remains far less clear.
In this investigation, we trace the closed-door discussions via exclusive interviews with EU and national decision makers and insights gathered from FOI documents that led to the rapid rewriting of EU farm policy at the height of the so-called farming ‘crisis' and dig into the moment that broke new ground for EU policymaking. We explore this from both sides: from the EU side of decision making power, and then to the ripple effects of this moment at the national level.
In the first months of 2024, farmers all over Europe took the streets with their tractors. But although the protests may have gathered under the slogan ‘No Farmers No Food’, farmers' voices were all but united. Unfair market conditions and prices, pesticides, environmental regulations, opportunities for young farmers, bureaucracy, protection against the growing impacts of climate change – farmers across different countries raised a variety of issues, but political response to the protests focused overwhelmingly on just one: dismantling environmental policies.
Abrupt changes to the EU farm policy reverberated at a national level. In Spain, exclusive documents detailing the political decisions taken during those months, alongside testimonies of the reality of eco-farming two years on, reveal a decline in the protection of the most vulnerable ecosystems in a country highly affected by climate change-related transformations.
In Italy, the real day-to-day problems of farmers were exploited to water down measures to protect biodiversity and promote sustainable agriculture. During and after the protests, political actors and trade organisations publicly adopted the narrative of supporting farmers as ‘the keepers of the land’ and ‘the first environmentalists’. Despite this, the concerns raised by farmers during the protests across the country remain largely unaddressed by new legislation implemented after – and in response to – the tractors demonstrations. At the same time, lobbying by big agricultural organisations is polluting the participatory processes that could make the voices of small farming organisations be heard at the policy table.
This investigation unveils the mid and long term effects of the protests and the concerns of farmers that still remain unaddressed, as political actors – from trade organisations to populist politicians – weaponised protests to undermine climate policies.
