Brussels, 15/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 15 January, French Agriculture Minister Stéphane Le Foll welcomed the step forward taken in Germany towards the creation of a minimum wage in abattoirs.
“This is good news for German employees, who will see their work better paid, but also for French employees. With this concrete step forward, the German agri-food sector will regain a level of labour cost which will allow more balanced competition between European partners”, Le Foll said. “This measure is in line with European social justice, in order to put an end to social dumping which turns employees into people working with no hope of escaping poverty, and strongly penalises the French agri-food industry and, ultimately, all European industries”, said French Junior Minister for the Food Industry Guillaume Garot. France has spoken out on many occasions against the social dumping practised in Germany, in abattoirs in particular.
This initial agreement is a step towards rolling out the minimum wage in Germany, as secured by the Social Democrats in the coalition agreement. The Social Democrats had made the minimum wage an election pledge, which many criticised as an unrealistic goal.
With this decisive step towards a minimum wage in German abattoirs, but also thanks to progress obtained by France at European level on laying down rules on the posted workers directive, “it is Europe which is moving forward, at both a competition and a social level”.
A few days after his meeting with his new German counterpart Hans-Peter Friedrich on 7 January (see EUROPE 10992), Le Foll will travel to Berlin on Friday 17 January for Grüne Woche.
France/Poland. On Tuesday 14 January, Le Foll met Polish Minister for Agriculture Stanis³aw Kalemba, in Paris, to inaugurate the new Franco-Polish joint agriculture committee. This procedure is an expression of the “extremely good understanding” between France and Poland which emerged during negotiations on the reform of the common agriculture policy (CAP). The joint agriculture committee aims to consolidate cooperation between the two countries in agriculture. Tuesday's meeting allowed the ministers to discuss details for national implementation of the new CAP in the two countries, the future of the dairy sector in Europe, international trade negotiations and health-related issues being discussed at European level.
The ministers stressed that they attach great importance to the future of the dairy sector, against the backdrop of the end of the dairy quota regime in 2015. They therefore hope that the debate initiated by the Commission at the conference of September 2013 will lead to the creation of “tools guaranteeing a high level of reactiveness and making it possible to deal effectively with crises”. France and Poland also believe that the “challenge” of a fair division of production over the territory, once quotas expire, needs to be met. The two ministers are remaining attentive to trade negotiations underway between the European Union and the United States, particularly as regards the impact of this agreement on the European livestock sector. (LC/transl.fl)