A coalition of oppositions in the National Assembly decided, Tuesday April 9, to refer the draft “guidance law for agricultural sovereignty and the renewal of generations in agriculture” to the Constitutional Council, considering the impact study potentially insufficient and insincere government.
The president of the La France insoumise (LFI) group, Mathilde Panot, wrote Monday to that of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet (Renaissance), to raise the question of “the insincerity of the impact study presented by the government” on its text.
It is based in particular on the reservations issued by the Council of State. In an opinion dated March 21, he considers, for example, that certain measures proposed by the government, for the “acceleration of litigation” in the event of appeal against water storage projects or livestock buildings, “are likely to present risks of constitutionality”. He also explains that the government’s impact study is “very insufficiently motivated” on this subject to the extent that it “limits itself to anticipating an increase in the number of appeals”.
A text welcomed by agricultural unions
The Conference of Presidents of the Assembly, which met on Tuesday, debated this issue and decided, under Article 39 of the Constitution, that the Constitutional Council should decide on the inclusion in the agenda of the Assembly of this text.
“We won a victory this morning and made Parliament respect,” responded Ms. Panot at a press conference at the Palais-Bourbon.
According to a parliamentary source, the presidents of the opposition groups validated this referral, unlike those of the presidential camp, in a relative majority situation in the Assembly. It is now up to the President of the Assembly or the Prime Minister to refer the matter to the Constitutional Council, which will then have eight days to decide. If it validates the impact study, the bill could be included on the menu of the Lower House “from May 14”, according to a parliamentary source.
Reworked due to the farmers’ crisis, the government’s text aims to accelerate the arrival of new generations of farmers relieved of certain environmental constraints. Combining subjects as varied as training, hedges or the status of livestock protection dogs, it is hailed by the majority agricultural unions for its simplification measures and the promised facilitation of irrigation or livestock projects.
Conversely, environmental NGOs criticize it for perpetuating the current model, to the detriment of ecosystems.
