The French Minister of Agriculture, Didier Guillaume, formally presented, on Monday 28 January in Brussels, a seven-page document on France's position in the negotiations on the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
The negotiations “must not lead to a weakening of the common mechanisms guaranteeing the proper functioning of the internal market”, France stresses. This new CAP should “support the transformation of the sectors” (by merging coupled aid and operational programmes into a single ceiling of appropriations) and devote a “minimum expenditure target” to the environment, the document stresses.
France says it is “in favour of the environmental architecture proposed by the Commission”, but wants conditionality to be simplified.
The post-2020 CAP will also have to introduce an “alert threshold” to better manage agricultural crises, which would lead the European Commission to present proposals.
France also defends “aid for voluntary volume reduction”, the document continues. In addition, for rural development, regional authorities should be able to “exercise the functions of managing authorities”. This new CAP “cannot be conceived without social, environmental and health regulation of trade” with third countries, the document concludes. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)