Brussels, 09/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - On the initiative of Vice-President Françoise Grossetête, Deputy Mayor of Saint-Etienne, at its meeting in Saint-Etienne last week, the European Parliament's EPP-ED group was addressed by French agriculture minister Hervé Gaymard, interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy and Europol's director Jürgen Storbeck.
Hervé Gaymard challenged the early review of the dairy quota system, saying the scheme should be kept in its present format until 2008, in line with Agenda 2000. French UMP deputies expressed their "stupefaction" at the Commission's decision to "penalise French farmers' associations". On 2 April, the European Commission imposed fines totalling EUR 16.7 million on six French beef federations for price-fixing (see Europe of 3 April, p.11). Hugues Martin expressed astonishment in a press release at seeing "competition rules that normally apply to businesses being directly transposed to agricultural syndicates.
In terms of immigration, Nicolas Sarkozy restated his opposition to the zero immigration policy for France, while recommending a policy of managing immigration. In the run-up to enlargement, are we going to let the new Member States manage the EU's external borders themselves, he asked, replying that No, the costs had to be shared out. He argued that national egotism in this connection would cost them dear. Sarkozy hoped that Europe would have the courage to deport illegal immigrants, saying that the issue of misuse of tourist visas had to be dealt with and solved and a debate at European level was required.
The Director of Europol, Jürgen Storbeck, highlighted the problems of combatting organised crime in Europe and regretted Europe's worryingly high levels of exports of synthetic drugs. He said that human trafficking had sharply risen particularly in areas like the white slave trade and organ trafficking.