Ministers from the French Presidency of the Council, in office for the second half of 2008, took part in meetings with almost all of Parliament’s committees from 14-17 July to present their priorities. Here we present a summary of the main points of interest from a week of debates.
Foreign policy
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner faced questions on many aspects of EU foreign policy from the Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday.
Asked by Jose Salafranca (EPP-ED, ES) about the evolution of the Union for the Mediterranean, he stressed two key priorities: to involve public-private partnerships more extensively, and to concentrate on specific projects, not just policy discussions.
Environment
The French Presidency, represented by Ecology and Sustainable Development Minister Jean-Louis Borloo and State Secretary Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, stressed the need for urgency in EP-Council negotiations on the EU’s climate change package.
Mr Borloo hoped that his Czech successors in the Presidency “will begin international negotiations armed with the [concluded] climate change package”. Failing a political agreement by the time of Poznan conference, he warned, “the Copenhagen deadline” – for an international agreement by the end of 2009 – “will be a failure”.
Getting a first-reading agreement on the climate package by the end of the year “is a heck of a challenge”, but I think we’re up to it”, said John Bowis (EPP-ED, UK).
Such an agreement will require “constant communication between the co-legislators”, remarked Guido Sacconi (PES, IT), noting that the Presidency had failed to address the car emissions issue – on which he is rapporteur – in its opening statement.
Mr Borloo also outlined the Presidency’s priorities in meetings with the Industry and Climate Change committees on Thursday. It was during the meeting with Climate Change MEPs that Avril Doyle (EPP-ED, IE) urged the French minister to press the Commission to deliver on a long-anticipated legislative proposal on forestry. “If you want us even to think of a first-reading agreement on ETS”, she warned, you must “get your act together” on the forestry dossier whose presentation – claimed Mrs Doyle – has been delayed by the Commission till December.
International trade
The ministerial meeting to be held on 21 July in Geneva is “risky”, Anne-Marie Idrac told the International Trade Committee, given the number of issues to be resolved and the concessions on agriculture that Europeans have made in these WTO negotiations.
The completion of a Euromed free trade area by 2010 is “anything but theoretical”, said the State Secretary for external trade in reply to questions from Tokia Saïfi (EPP-ED, FR) and Ignasi Guardans (ALDE, ES) on the development of the Euromed area.
Asked about economic partnership agreements by Glyn Ford (PES, UK), she announced that negotiations would be reoriented to take account of food safety. The European Parliament should vote on its assent to the EPA with the Caribbean at the start of 2009.
Development
“Our priority is the relaunching of family and local agriculture so as to fight the world food crisis sustainably”, Alain Joyandet, State Secretary for Cooperation and the francophonie the Development Committee. Finding new sources of funding is on the agenda of the French Presidency. “The success of the tax on air fares strengthens our determination to press ahead with this kind of innovative source of funds”, said Mr Joyandet, who reaffirmed the Presidency’s backing for the inclusion of the European Development Fund in the main EU budget.
Transfers from European residents are another possible source of funding, suggested Thierry Cornillet (ALDE, FR). Development Committee Chairman Josep Borrell (PES, ES) observed that “the means allocated to solidarity with developing countries are declining, to the benefit of security policies. France and the UK have contributed greatly to this reduction in official development assistance.
With regard to EU relations to ACP countries, Alain Joyandet underlined, that the implementation and the monitoring of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy will be one of the core priorities, in particular with regard to the action plans on climate change and peace and security. He also emphasized the significance of the Cotonou Revision and the ACP- EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly in the French presidency.
Moreover, the French Presidency will also focus on the China-EU-Africa relationship where the China-EU Summit will be a good occasion to talk with China on Africa. However, it will be also a good possibility to reflect on an extended partnership where all partners work together. Food security will be one of the main subject at this summit.
Human rights
Human rights are an integral part of the vision of a common foreign and security policy, Jacques Pellet, the French Foreign Ministry official responsible for Human Rights told the Subcommittee on Human Rights on Wednesday. In particular, the French Presidency will focus on establishing a project promoting women’s rights and acting against violence towards women.
“This topic is to act as a mobilising springboard to further action on the underlying causes of human rights violations, such as discrimination,” Mr Pellet said.
Agriculture and rural development
“Agriculture is one of the four priorities of the French Presidency” said Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Michel Barnier before the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee on 15 July. Its key aims are to obtain an agreement on the CAP health check and the distribution of fruit and vegetables in schools, fixing the main lines of the food aid for the most deprived persons scheme and starting work on the issues of the food quality green paper.
Mr Barnier also wishes to strengthen consumer health protection (with controls on the use of certain products, import checks) and to reaffirm “Europe’s solidarity with developing countries” and its determination to “help tackle the world food challenge” by producing “more and better”.
Although generally favourable, MEPs nonethess expressed doubts and concerns, notably about milk quotas, tobacco and sheep. Committee chair Neil Parish (EPP-ED, UK) questioned the compatibility of reducing the use of plant-health products with increasing production and with the modulation rate to be fixed by the Council.
