FRANCE’S two major farming unions suspended protests and road blockades today after a new set of measures was announced by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal representing “tangible progress.”

Farmers have held days of nationwide protests against low wages, heavy regulation and unfair competition from abroad.

Young Farmers union president Arnaud Gaillot spoke today alongside the head of FNSEA, France’s biggest farmers’ union, saying: “We call on our members to suspend the blockades.”

“We have been heard on a number of points, with tangible progress,” including emergency measures to financially support struggling farmers and wine producers, said FNSEA president Arnaud Rousseau.

Earlier in the day, Mr Attal had set out a new package of measures, following other recent promises.

He spoke as convoys of hundreds of angry farmers driving tractors created chaos outside the European Union’s headquarters in Brussels, demanding that leaders at an EU summit provide relief from rising prices and bureaucracy.

“The question is currently being asked throughout Europe: is there a future for our agriculture? Of course, the answer is yes,” Mr Attal said.

He promised that there would be no new pesticide ban “without a solution” and promised no pesticides would be banned in France that had been authorised elsewhere in the EU.

The Prime Minister also announced that France was immediately banning imports of fruits and vegetables from outside the EU that have been treated with Thiaclopride — an insecticide currently prohibited in the bloc.

France will propose the creation of a “European control force” to combat fraud, he said, particularly regarding health regulations, and fight imports of food products that violate European and French health standards.

Mr Attal also reaffirmed that France remained opposed to the EU signing a free-trade deal with South American trade bloc Mercosur.