French environment and agriculture ministers in public dust up over the future direction of the CAP
Tag Archives: France
French environment ministry coming out in favour of a green CAP
The French Ministry of the environment has spectacularly broken ranks with the Ministry of agriculture by publishing its vision ‘For a sustainable agricultural policy in 2013’. The 17-page document does not beat about the bush: it calls for a radical overhaul and puts down numbers. After stormy protests, it has been withdrawn from the Ministry webpage.
Franco-German position on future of the CAP
In the past, when France and Germany have worked together, they have been able to dictate the future of the CAP. A new policy position seeks to preserve this tradition.
Sarkozy and Cameron on collision course?
For the entente cordiale, the British budget rebate and the CAP are a toxic combination.
Voters punish Sarkozy, Le Maire stays on
French farms minister fails in his bid to become regional president of Normandy
Sarkozy offers a deal on CAP reform
The French President criticises subsidy dependency and calls for a return to community preference
Does France really want to suspend agri-environmental measures?
The president of the main farmers’ union, the Fedération Nationale des Syndicats d’Exploitants Agricoles (FNSEA) Jean Michel Le Metayer called for “a pause in agri-environmental measures” and the suspension of new measures. The Ministry of agriculture seems to have some sympathy for this position. While it turns out that it is more the GAECs than the MAEs that are at stake, this is illustrative of the French debate.
Paris Declaration on the Common Agricultural Policy
You can read here the agreed communiqué from the 22 countries which were invited by France to discuss the future of the CAP in Paris yesterday. The meeting itself was surrounded by some controversy given that 5 member states (UK, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands and Malta) were not originally invited, although the UK did send along [...]
What does France think?
France is Europe’s agricultural powerhouse and when it comes to the CAP, it is probably the single most influential member state. So what France thinks is of central importance to the future of EU farm policy. It is therefore good to see the publication of the latest of the national reform profile series at the [...]
French CAP plan nixed by Council
Today’s meeting of the Agriculture Council witnessed the frequently irrestistable force of French attachment to the Common Agricultural Policy run into the occasionally immovable object of UK, Swedish and new member state desire for change. The result was that a much-trumpeted French vision paper for the future of the CAP beyond 2013 was roundly rejected. [...]
French reform paper: An exercise in decoding
France has produced a paper on the future of the CAP which is designed to stimulate discussion at the informal farm council to be held there in the Rhone-Alps region on 21-23 September. The paper is very vague, no doubt deliberately so, and interpreting has to be an exercise in decoding.
French press for EU summit on CAP
French farm leaders have asked President Sarkozy to organise a Special Summit of EU heads of government on ‘EU ambitions for the agriculture and agri-food sectors.’ Perhaps the word ‘EU’ should be replaced by ‘French’.
France asks “Who will feed the world?”
The French government has launched a new website as part of the run-up to a conference it will hold on 3 July, at the very beginning of France’s 6-month EU Presidency, to discuss the future of European and global agriculture. Entitled “Qui va nourrir le monde?” (Who will feed the world), the debate is being [...]
Sarko: “La France est de retour en Europe”
Showing soon at a screen near you….
Food security: woolly thinking and self defeating solutions
As Jack Thurston has well exposed in his recent entry, the “food security” argument seems to be the new rally call for those trying to justify continuation of untargetted payments to farmers, or even a return to production support (albeit disguised as “risk management”, “income insurance” and the like). At a recent debate I was [...]
Churchill, Malthus, Brown, Barnier and agricultural protectionism
Earlier this week, BBC Radio 4 broadcast Churchill Confidential, a dramatisation of British cabinet meetings chaired by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, records of which have only recently been released into the public domain. In this week’s episode, looking at Churchill’s second term of office (1951-55), we get an overview of the pressing issues of state [...]
Barnier et son ‘B-Team’ s’installent un camp de base à Bruxelles
With the Slovenian Presidency of the EU barely a month old, the French government is already limbering up for its defense of the CAP during the Health Check and the budget review when France takes the helm of the EU in the second half of 2008. Farms minister Michel Barnier is here in Brussels all [...]
Agriculture Ministers hold first discussions on Health Check
Agriculture Ministers had their first discussion of the Commission’s Health Check proposals at the first Council meeting under the Slovenian Presidency yesterday. It appears that the two issues causing the most fuss are the Commission’s suggestions to introduce a progressive reduction in single farm payments to larger farms (inaccurately referred to as capping) and to [...]
Public supports ‘consumer agenda’ in farm policy
A new survey of public opinion released today by the German Marshall Fund of the United States shows strong support for ‘consumer agenda’ in EU and US agriculture policies focused on food safety, the environment and the food supply. There was significantly less support for producer-oriented priorities like providing emergency financial relief to farmers, insuring [...]
Sarko to scrap the CAP?
Hyperactive French President Nicolas Sarkozy this week made a fundamental break with his predecessors, endorsing ‘radical reform’ of Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy, according to a report by Agence France Presse.
Musical chairs at the French Ministry for Agriculture
The surprise parliamentary election defeat last Sunday of Alain Juppé, a leading member of newly-appointed French cabinet has forced President Nicolas Sarkozy into an unplanned cabinet reshuffle. Newly appointed Agriculture Minister Christine Lagarde has been promoted to the post of Finance Minister. The resulting gap at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fishing has been filled [...]
Sarko’s hard line could have a paradoxical end
The hard line being taken by France’s new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, on the future of the CAP could have a paradoxical outcome: further re-nationalisation of the policy once seen as the cornerstone of the European Union.
