France eyes farm reform for its EU presidency

France hopes to mark its stint as European Union president from July by presenting ambitious ideas on how to reform the bloc's agricultural policy.

But some diplomats fear President Nicolas Sarkozy's suggestions to spur domestic production and make Europe less dependent on imports masks a protectionist stance that does little to change the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

France is by far the largest cash beneficiary of the CAP, which eats up 44 billion euros ($69.35 billion) a year -- around 40 percent of the whole EU budget. France is Europe's single biggest grains producer and also a major livestock exporter.

EU diplomats and officials have monitored a stream of rhetoric from Paris that they say suggests a desire to modernise farm policy, but which also hints at old-style protectionism.

Sarkozy and Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier have both talked of giving priority to EU farm products over imports, which is usually achieved via tariffs, as well as raising quality and sanitary standards for food imports.

Diplomats say the French president clearly wants to "do something" about the CAP, but they remain to be convinced that anything much will change under the six-month French presidency.

"The most likely outcome is something that will enable the French to say they kicked off the debate on what the CAP should look like," one EU diplomat said.

"CONTRADICTIONS"

"Politically, Sarkozy feels he can't be looking backwards. There aren't many new ideas, a lot of it is a rehash of old ideas," he said. "And there are a lot of contradictions between forward-looking language and backward-looking detail."

French officials are at pains to stress that the country has already worked out its ideas for reshaping EU farm policy and that it hopes Europe can hang on to certain market agricultural safety nets rather than get rid of them altogether.