Overview
- The National Assembly approved the emergency farm bill by 296 votes to 224 on Tuesday and the measure was set for a final Senate vote later that day.
- The law permits waiver-based use of acetamiprid for hazelnuts and flupyradifurone for sugar beet, apples and cherries, with each waiver requiring approval from health agency Anses and limited to a maximum of three years.
- Environment Minister Monique Barbut has told officials she will resign in protest after the bill’s expected Senate passage, underscoring a split inside the centrist government.
- Farm groups and the sugar industry welcomed the vote as needed to protect crops from aphid damage and unequal EU rules, while Greenpeace, beekeepers and many left-wing lawmakers condemned the move as a risk to bees and human health and said they would seek legal challenge.
- The package also eases water-storage rules by increasing allowances over the next decade, a change that revives the 2023 fights over reservoirs and that could trigger further protests, legal appeals and wider debate over how to balance farming resilience with environmental safeguards.