The bill, put forward by ruling majority MP Nicole Le Peih and supported by President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist government, was approved 78 votes to 12 overnight on Monday and will now proceed to the Senate.

“This law will put an end to abusive lawsuits against farmers who do nothing but their job: feed us. It is a common-sense proposal, country-side common-sense,” Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said on social media platform X.

French governments have long courted farmers, an influential sector that Paris ignores at its peril.

The country has a history of conflicts between former city dwellers buying country houses and then complaining about roosters crowing, dogs barking, the noise of agricultural machinery or the smell of manure.

BFM TV reported that nearly 500 farmers are currently facing lawsuits from neighbours taking issue with noise, or smells, emanating from their farms.

In 2019, in a case that caught international media attention, a court ruled that a rooster called Maurice could continue his dawn crowing despite complaints from neighbours in a village on a small island off France’s Atlantic coast.

France already has legislation, introduced in 2021, to protect the “the French countryside’s sensory heritage”, but the new law aims to give more protection to existing farms from newly arrived residents in the area.

“Proud to support those who work in our fields. Now to the Senate,” farming union FNSEA Deputy Chairman Luc Smessaert said on X.

Brittany region environmentalist Claire Desmares told local radio France Bleu that the proposed law is an “absurd and populist” measure proposed by the powerful agricultural lobby.

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Solidarity lanes are rail and road transport connections through EU member states that border Ukraine such as Poland and Hungary while the most significant lane is through Romania.

Wojciechowski said that the EU was looking at several initiatives from member states to come up with a joint plan to cover the additional transport costs.

The Black Sea deal, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July, aimed to help prevent a global food crisis by allowing grain blocked by the war in Ukraine to be safely exported. Russia pulled out last week.

“Trade is not attractive enough…Russia will be a beneficiary of this situation because it will be cheaper to buy grain from Russia than Ukraine that is transported through Poland to the Baltic ports,” Wojciechowski said, without providing a cost estimate.

About 60 per cent of Ukraine’s exports were shipped via solidarity lanes and 40 per cent went via the Black Sea while the U.N. backed grain deal was in operation.

The collapse of the deal is expected to take a particularly heavy toll on countries in Africa that depended on deliveries by sea.

“It is not the first time Russia (has used) food as a weapon… The situation is similar to the beginning of the war,” Wojciechowski told reporters.

“We are ready to export almost everything. This is about four million tonnes per month of oilseeds and grains and we achieved this volume in November last year,” he added.

Expanding grain transit through the EU is sensitive for Poland and some other EU countries bordering Ukraine, where farmers have come under pressure from increased Ukrainian imports.

In May, the EU allowed five countries close to Ukraine – Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – to ban domestic sales of Ukrainian wheat, maize and oilseeds while allowing transit through them for onward export.

The EU will review the ban after several countries pushed for extension beyond the Sept. 15 ban expiry.

“Now Ukraine has built up stocks again, more than before the war, and most likely this will increase pressure on frontline countries and we have to approach this seriously,” the Commissioner added.

EU member Lithuania has asked the European Commission to develop a route for Ukrainian grain through the ports in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The move, proposed by three Lithuanian ministers in a letter seen by Reuters, would create “a viable and trusted alternative route” for exporting Ukrainian produce, including grain, through the ports of Tallinn, Riga, Ventspils, Liepaja and Klaipeda, said the letter, signed by three Lithuanian ministers.

The five ports have a combined grain export capacity of 25 million tonnes, said the letter, dated July 21.

Its asked the European Commission for targeted action to create the route, such as “implementing measures to facilitate cargo handling between different railway gauges”, and moving customs and other controls of the produce from the Polish border to the Baltic ports.

Ukraine and the Baltic States railways are built on Russian-type gauge, which is incompatible with the railway gauge used in Poland, the only practical route between the countries.

–Reporting for Reuters by Julia Payne and Geert De Clercq. Additional reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius.

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Nitrite salts are widely used in cured meats such as ham, bacon and sausages, extend the shelf life of processed meats and give boiled ham its pink colour.

But a 2015 World Health Organization report classified processed meat as carcinogenic because curing — by adding nitrates or nitrites or by smoking — can lead to the formation of potentially cancer-causing chemicals.

Proposed by an MP of the Modem party — which is part of President Emmanuel Macron’s ruling coalition — the new bill stopped short of an outright ban from 2023, but has set a timetable for reducing nitrites use.

National health agency Anses will publish a report about the health risks of nitrite by the end of June, after which the government will have 12 months to outline a trajectory for reducing or phasing out the preservative.

Implementation of the new law would fall to a new government following presidential elections in April.

“Even if this law delays a decision on the issue, it commits government and parliament to take decisions in coming months,” said French food quality app Yuka, the French anti-cancer league and the Foodwatch NGO in a joint statement.

Fabien Castanier, director of cured meat industry federation FICT, said his group welcomed the fact that any decision would be based on a scientific report.

He said nitrites are deemed to be safe additives under current French and European legislation and that the French “charcuterie” industry already used less nitrite — about 110 miligrams per kilogram — than the 150 mg/kg allowed by EU rules.

Currently, 90 per cent of all cured meats include nitrites but some of the biggest firms such as Nesltle-owned Herta or Fleury Michon are already experimenting with nitrite-free products, Castanier said.

However, he said the nearly 300 small- to medium-size companies in the sector would struggle to manufacture their products without the use of nitrites, as lack of the preservative would reduce shelf life and increase the risk of bacterial infection.

— Reporting for Reuters by Geert De Clercq in Paris.

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The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) provisionally took effect from September 2017, but still needs to be approved by all 28 EU member states.

Opponents of CETA say it will bring unfair competition to French farmers as Canada’s environmental legislation is less strict than in France.

Hulot resigned in August 2018 in protest at the pace of President Emmanuel Macron’s environmental reforms.

But with an approval rating of more than 70 percent in the Paris Match magazine weekly poll, the former nature programme presenter remains by far the most popular political figure in France.

He said that when France bans certain pesticides to protect people’s health, it goes against the interests of the chemicals giants.

“When all these lobbies are already trying to break down the door, why give them a battering ram with CETA?” Hulot wrote in an open letter to MPs published on the Franceinfo radio website.

“Have the courage to say ‘no’ tomorrow,” He said.

If parliament ratifies the agreement – which is likely, as Macron’s centrist LREM party has a comfortable majority – France will become the 14th EU state to do so.

However, any abstentions or votes against the treaty by some LREM members would be a blow to Macron, already under fire from some quarters for not making the environment a bigger priority.

The French government reiterated that the treaty was beneficial for the country.

“With CETA, we are sure that we will not import the kind of agriculture that we do not want,” Agriculture Minister Didier Guillaume said on France 2 television.

The CETA agreement can theoretically be scuppered altogether if an EU member country formally notifies Brussels that it has permanently rejected it. A year ago, Italy said it would not ratify it.

France’s Senate, held by the conservative opposition, will vote on CETA this autumn but does not have the power to block it. (Reporting by Marine Pennetier and Geert De Clercq; Editing by Alison Williams)

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