Overview
- The Senate approved a heavily amended version of the government’s emergency farm bill late in the night of Thursday to Friday, winning the vote 219 to 111.
- Key Senate changes include time‑limited derogations that would allow certain banned neonicotinoids such as acetamiprid for specific crops, a target to double agricultural water storage by 2035, a narrower wetlands definition, and new tools to fight wolf predation.
- The executive branch has publicly opposed large parts of the Senate text, with Ecological Transition minister Monique Barbut saying the changes 'put in grave peril' water sharing and warning the rewrites stray far from the government’s original text.
- Farmer unions such as the FNSEA and co‑rapporteur Laurent Duplomb welcomed the vote as relief for struggling producers while environmental groups, left‑wing parties and a public petition of over two million signatures warned of harm to biodiversity and public health.
- A 14‑member commission mixte paritaire will meet on July 16 to reconcile the Senate and Assembly texts, a process that will decide whether pesticide and water measures survive, risk legal challenges under EU law, or return the bill to prolonged parliamentary dispute.