Frances farm policy vision fails final EU hurdle

France failed to persuade all 27 EU governments on Friday to sign up to its vision of farm policy before the bloc starts tough budget negotiations, even after it watered down the text to make it more acceptable.

Three countries -- Britain, Latvia and Sweden -- objected to the final version of the French paper that outlines broad principles for EU farm policy after 2013, although it had been turned into a fairly bland statement of priorities and concepts.

Earlier versions hinted at needing to keep a door open for old-style support systems, along with mentions of the doctrine of "community preference", where EU products are favoured over imports. To many in Brussels, that merely means import tariffs.