Brussels, 30/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - Following the victory of the 'No' vote in France on the European Constitution, the French government said on Monday that it would be keeping a close eye on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to ward off attempts to challenge it in the negotiations over the 2007-2013 Financial Perspectives. On the fringes of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels on Monday, France's farm minister Dominique Bussereau said the CAP was not jeopardised by what happened in France on Sunday, but he recognised that France's EUR 8 bn farm aid might be tempting and France would have to remain highly vigilant. He said that there could be danger, which was why he was there on Monday morning to reaffirm France's vigilance over the follow-up to the agreement that President Chirac and Chancellor Schroder had reached on financing the CAP until 2013 (France and Germany were the main engines behind the October 2002 decision by the European Council to set in advance the levels of agricultural market spending from 2007 to 2013). Bussereau said that in the current budget negotiations, the German political situation was just as important as the political situation in France and it all had to be settled at heads of state level. He added that as the French President had said on Sunday evening, the EU was going ahead, the current treaties were in operation and French ministers and diplomats were doing their work.
Italy's farm minister, Giovanni Alemanno, said the French 'Non' was a blow to European integration, adding that it was important to ensure the farm budget was not penalised in the upcoming Financial Perspectives because it was such a sensitive issue for the French.