Brussels, 21/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - Addressing French milk producers on Thursday 21 March, French Agriculture Minister Stéphane Le Foll announced the setting in place of new coupled aid for livestock farming for the year 2013, saying the European Commission has opened the possibility of redeploying 1st pillar budgetary resources for this year. An envelope of €20 million for the milk sector will be allocated to farmers who have recently set up business and to recent investors (hit by the rising costs of animal feed). A further €20 million will go to farmers with suckler cows and cattle for fattening. The minister set out the positive results obtained in Council on CAP reform, including the possibility of increasing decoupled aid paid to the first 50 hectares of each farm, and the increase at this stage to 12% of the coupling rate. These tools, the minister said, will make it possible to steer the CAP to the advantage of livestock farming. There will be a meeting in September this year on the end of the dairy quota system to discuss what should come next. Le Foll confirmed they would work actively with other member states to come up with a concrete proposal between now and then for intervention measures in the event of market imbalance. (LC/transl.jl)