Interministerial Committee on Europe – Communiqué issued by M. François Fillon, Prime Minister

Paris, 30 April 2008

(…) This meeting of the Interministerial Committee on Europe followed the government seminar on the French EU presidency of 17 November 2007 and Interministerial Committee meeting of 5 February this year at Matignon.

CLIMATE CHANGE

The committee began by discussing the fight against climate change, with the Prime Minister stressing its importance for France, Europe and the world. He recalled that, in order to reach an agreement under French presidency on the basis of the Commission’s proposals, it was urgent to deal with the risk of European industry transferring production to third countries, a risk clearly identified by the European Council of 13 and 14 March 2008. We need very soon to have some specific European proposals to address this risk, with the goal of achieving the most ambitious climate agreement possible by the end of 2009.

ENERGY SECURITY

The next item discussed was energy security in Europe, an issue on which expectations of the future French presidency are particularly high. The report submitted to the Prime Minister by Claude Mandil contains some interesting ideas leading potentially to French proposals on, for example, essential energy savings, establishing European mechanisms to address energy supply crises, the need for a discussion of the necessary investments in energy infrastructures and a revitalization of the European Union’s relations with the energy supplier countries.

AGRICULTURAL POLICY

The third subject concerned agricultural policy. The French Presidency will first of all have to complete the CAP health check. Concurrently, a debate will have to be opened on the challenges and issues of the CAP for the future. Finally, the issue of the Doha trade round was raised: the Prime Minister reiterated that the final result will have to be both acceptable for European agriculture, in accordance with the mandate given to the Commission, and globally balanced between concessions made by the Europeans and advantages obtained from our trading partners./.