Brussels, 30/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 29 March, France welcomed the conclusions of the Spanish EU Presidency on a better functioning food supply chain (EUROPE 10108). It called for competition law to be adapted to the specific needs of agricultural markets. Bruno Le Maire, France's Agriculture Minister, met with European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia the same day to discuss the issue.
Community rules prohibit producers from organising negotiation with the endorsement of the agricultural sector, in order to favour a proportionate balance of power between stakeholders in the food supply chain in order to bolster Europe-wide competitiveness. Bruno Le Maire spelled out the four following French proposals to the European competition commissioner: - 1) improve transparency on prices and farm production volumes through the setting in place of a European observatory for prices, volumes and margins (this idea appears in the text of the conclusions of the Spanish Presidency on the food supply chain); - 2) allow producers to give a horizontal focus to the negotiation of prices with processors; - 3) allow producers and processors within one and the same sector to consult each other in order to establish forward-looking market indicators; - and 4) authorise the inter-professions to regulate supply in some sectors, especially for quality produce. France will (in coming weeks) forward a written contribution to Almunia on these four points. “This must be the subject of debates and negotiations”, the French minister said, reminding the commissioner and his EU counterparts (during the Agriculture Council on Monday 29 March) that “it is not a question of returning to administrative prices”. “Between the return to a regulated economy in the agricultural sector, which is not a solution, and total market liberalisation (…), which is not a solution either, there is an intermediary way which is effective - that of regulating agricultural markets, which means a certain number of adjustments to competition law”, Le Maire concluded. The French minister also welcomed the possibility of setting contracts in place, that could become compulsory, and to strengthen producer organisations and inter-professional organisations. “Regulation of the agricultural markets, that France has been defending every inch of the way for several months and which seemed for many to be an unattainable objective, is now a reference in the Presidency's conclusions. It is a change of direction”, concluded Bruno Le Maire. (L.C./transl.jl)