Sarkozy: France needs no excuse to defend EU farm policy

Delivering a speech to the French agricultural community yesterday (18 January), French President Nicolas Sarkozy said debate on reform of EU farm policy for the post-2013 era and bailouts of financially troubled EU countries were linked.

In recent weeks, France has been forced to defend the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) amid particularly difficult budgetary negotiations. Yesterday again, Sarkozy stressed his commitment to maintaining a strong CAP in the EU's next budgetary cycle after 2013. He noted that the European Commission had already made important concessions to the WTO on farm policy and said he would work to maintain the CAP budget at its current level at least, even after the reform.

The French president also said that debate on EU farm policy reform and bailouts of financially troubled EU countries were linked. France has already committed nearly €100 billion to helping those countries and in doing so has shown European solidarity. "We do not have to excuse ourselves for defending Community preference and the CAP budget," Sarkozy said.
Farmers are producers of agricultural goods, not maintenance workers, he added, sending a message to those who want to 'green' the CAP, which would see a reduction of subsidies related to production.

Reducing 'green' constraints

The French president's speech seems to run counter to remarks he made in March 2010.
Back then, Sarkozy underlined the necessity to reduce the environmental constraints weighing on farmers and suggested that environmental questions were given too much consideration. His comments triggered an important polemic debate.

Yesterday, Sarkozy announced long-awaited measures to simplify regrouping of 'classified' animal husbandries, which are likely to cause pollution. From now on, the regrouping of two such husbandries can, under certain conditions, be exempted from impact assessment.
The new provisions concern pig, poultry and bovine husbandries. They relax the French legislation, which considers as "classified" a husbandry of 450 pigs, whereas the level imposed by the EU is 2,000 pigs.

The French government hopes the measure can give a boost to the economic performance of animal husbandries. Sarkozy also announced that trucks weighing up to 44 tonnes would soon be allowed to transport agricultural produce. Such legislation is already in force in most EU countries.

'Fighting on an equal footing'

The new measures echo the recommendations of a recent ministerial report, which urged France to not to impose stricter rules on its farmers than required by EU directives.
The French National Federation of Agricultural Holders' Union (FNSEA) welcomed the news, describing the announced measures as "the first step towards fighting on an equal footing" with other European farmers.

"In Europe, where all agricultural produce circulates freely, it is not acceptable to put extra national constraints on top of the EU obligations," the country's biggest farm trade union said.

Source: EurActiv.fr reports.