Brussels, 22/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday morning 22 July, the President of France, François Hollande and the country's Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, put the finishing touches to the final details of the mainly national emergency livestock rearers' plan. This mechanism includes 24 measures covering six different areas containing a variety of economic and structurally targeted action initiatives.
The French state will earmark more than €600 million to livestock breeders in the country experiencing difficulty, in an effort to provide financial relief. This includes €100 million in cancellation and contribution costs and €500 million for postponements.
Promoting French meat
Assistance worth €10 million will be granted to the pork, beef and dairy product sectors to help them promote their products. Export support measures are also planned (“French meat export platform”, which brings together all French exporters). The President may also provide a mandate to one of his Secretaries of State, Matthias Fekl or Harlem Désir to promote French meat in Europe.
In an effort to diversify the income of stock breeders by encouraging them to take part in energy transition initiatives, European funding is also planned, particularly as part of the Juncker Plan and methanising projects. France has also announced ovine stock breeder protection measures against wolf attacks and to develop an approach “to declassify the wolf as a strictly protected species according to the Bern Convention and the European Union”.
During the Agriculture Council on 11 July, France called for private bovine meat storage assistance, due to the crisis in the sector. The European Commission pointed out that prices were above the average of the past five years, although it did admit that low profitability was having an adverse effect on stock breeders.
According to a press release, Stéphane Le Foll, the French minister for agriculture, highlighted (with the support of the other delegations) at this Council “the urgent need to find European solutions to the stock breeding crisis”. The French minister managed to obtain an agreement from the Luxembourg Presidency to organise “another discussion on the situation in the markets at the Informal Council in September and not have to wait for the October Council”. (Lionel Changeur)