merrion street

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney TD met with his French counterpart Bruno Le Maire in Paris today.

Minister Coveney said that for Ireland to secure a successful outcome on both the CAP and CFP negotiations it is important to build alliances with other Member States.

"I am happy that today`s meeting forges an even closer understanding with my French counterpart Bruno Le Maire. I will continue to take every opportunity to ensure that Ireland`s concerns are fully understood and that alliances are strengthened in the run up to these negotiations".

Minister Coveney said Ireland and France have common objectives in terms of both simplification and flexibility in a reformed CAP. In relation to the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy both Ministers have a common understanding in relation to proposals on the important issues of transferability of quotas and the question of discards.

The Minister also took the opportunity to discuss the evolution of the dairy in the run up to the abolition of milk quotas.

Official joint communiqué is below:

Bruno LE MAIRE, French Minister for Agriculture, Food, Fisheries, Rural Development and Spatial Planning, met in Paris today with Simon Coveney TD, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine of Ireland to discuss the upcoming negotiations on reform of the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy.

1) In relation to the CAP, both Ministers highlighted the strategic importance of agriculture for the future of Europe and the need to promote sustainable production of food. They agreed on a common set of priorities for the upcoming reform of the CAP, as follows:

• To ensure that the negotiations for the next EU budget framework deliver at least a stable budget for the CAP, to support sustainable food production in the EU;
• To obtain the necessary flexibility for Member States in relation to payment models and transition arrangements for distribution of single payment funds to farmers;
• To ensure that future "greening" of the direct income support schemes should be simple to apply both for farmers and Member State administrations and should not entail additional costs for either; the scope of the greening should be pegged to the budgetary resources allocated to the CAP;
• To ensure an appropriate market support framework for agricultural markets, including economic and sanitary measures, that is capable of responding flexibly as the need arises.
• To keep CAP processes as simple and as effective as possible and to minimise unnecessary bureaucracy for the farmer and costs for the Member State.

Bruno LE MAIRE and Simon COVENEY also recalled their commitment to the  European beef  sector and as such will continue to pay close attention to the trade negotiations with Mercosur countries. The two ministers call the Commission to consider the recommendations of the high-level group on beef convened at the request of 11 Member States in July 2011 in order to ensure appropriate market support as well as crisis prevention and management instruments for the beef sector in Europe in the framework of the new CAP.

Bruno LE MAIRE and Simon COVENEY reaffirmed also their commitment to the future of

Food

for the

(MDP) and call for the adoption of the Commission’s proposals to secure food aid in Europe. Solidarity to the European most deprived people must go on, especially in the current economical context.

2) As regards the proposed reform of the Common Fisheries Policy both Ministers agreed to work together to ensure a successful outcome to the negotiations.  In particular, the Ministers:

• Reaffirmed  the collective and inalienable nature of fisheries resources, which is incompatible with a market of individual transferable fishing concessions as proposed by the Commission,
• Stressed  their attachment to measures intended to increase the selectivity of fisheries, to protect non-target species and young fish to avoid discards and agreed on the need for further work in relation to the proposals on discards and  Maximum Sustainable Yields,
• Argued in favour of simplified governance of the common fisheries policy for the drawing up of technical and management measures of regional scope; such governance should be based on the reinforced application of the subsidiarity principle and a greater participation of the various actors involved at the level of each fishery.