11/11/2009 (Agence Europe) - France is to hold a meeting before the end of the year of the 21 countries in favour of European regulation of the dairy market, to define a new European agricultural policy based on "good food", the French agriculture minister, Bruno Le Maire, announced on Tuesday 10 November. The fight to defend an "ambitious and proactive" common agricultural policy (CAP) must start now, said Mr Le Maire. This new CAP, which the minister dubbed "food and European policy", must give Europe "its food independence", allowed to defend a "strategic" sector and guarantee it "the best food security in the world". He believes that the CAP is not at the service of farmers, it is at the service of the 500 million European citizens it has to feed. "There will be no CAP without a strategic food objective, there will be no CAP without a budget guaranteed as it is today and there will be no CAP without regulation of the agricultural markets", he said. (L.C./transl.fl)