17/02/2010 (Agence Europe) - French Agriculture Minster Bruno Le Maire, deeming the criteria proposed by the European Commission unacceptable, announced on Tuesday 16 February that he was setting a working group on the reform of less-favoured farming areas being undertaken by the European Union. The Commission proposed eight criteria for defining less-favoured farming areas (see EUROPE 9926), and called on member states to test these new criteria by carrying out “zoning simulations”. “These criteria are not satisfactory: they lead to a halving of basic less-favoured areas and of the aid allocated to them. This is quite unacceptable,” Le Maire complained. He pointed out that the reform did not relate to mountain areas, which receive 80% of the aid. These would be “retained in full”, he said. (L.C./transl.rt)