Emmanuel Macron cut the ribbon of the French Agricultural Show, and the gesture may well serve as the motto for the times ahead. As other European countries, France is in the middle of a drought. The French president declared the “end of abundance” of water and asked all stakeholders to participate in the effort to save the precious resource.
“The nation needs to do regarding water as has been done in the field of energy, a form of sobriety plan. That is to say that we must all — citizens, industrialists, services, local authorities, farmers — pay attention to this resource which is becoming rare. This is what I said at the end of the summer, it is the end of abundance.”
To balance international competition, the French president also sent a message to Latin American countries. Emmanuel Macron says that a trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur countries “is not possible” if they don’t respect the same environmental and sanitary rules as Europeans.
An agreement between the two blocs was reached in 2019, after more than 20 years of negotiations, but the document is yet to be ratified by member states.
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