Brussels, 30/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - In a joint text made public on Monday entitled "Continuous Reform", the German and French Agriculture Ministers Renate Kunast and Jean Glavany hope to engage in a broad debate on redirecting aid of the Common Agricultural Policy (Cap) towards developing rural and extensive agriculture. This direction "that can no longer wait", must be based on the fundamental mechanism of "moving the budgetary effort from direct aid linked to production to support expressing the different roles of agriculture today recognised by society: the environment, rural development, jobs, quality and animal well-being. For that, France and Germany want to make compulsory the application of the system (currently optional at Community level) of a modulation and decrease in aid and call on the European Commission to make a proposal on the exact modalities of such a mechanism. France and Germany whence suggest that this system, progressive in time, takes account in the second pillar of the Cap (rural development) of the specific situations of regions and problems of co-financing. A more general development of market management mechanisms should also be considered, notably for beef (German suggestion of a premium per hectare of fodder) and oil-seed production (promote the diversification of crops, consolidate the tax system for bio-fuels, use of set-aside). In the immediate future, it is necessary to encourage organic farming.