France says No to farm aid budget cuts also
Ireland is one of seven countries facing reduced EU farm aid, if six powerful member states get their way in this summer's troubled negotiations on the Union's budget for the next nine years.
Britain and the Netherlands are leading a campaign by 15 member states for countries to pay more of the subsidies for their farmers, to allow Common Agricultural Policy savings.
Yesterday, IFA warned of the threat posed to Irish farmers by the EU Budget negotiations.
However, it is now likely that budget talks will be bogged down indefinitely, as the French No vote is expected to trigger all-out hostility in EU political circles, making significant economic reforms, like a major budget change, all but impossible across the 25 member states.
Already, on Monday, French farm minister Dominique Bussereau insisted he will not give any ground on reforming EU financial aid to farmers, despite French voters' stunning rejection of the bloc's new constitution.
"The (CAP) is not called into question by what happened yesterday in our country," he said, on the sidelines of a meeting with his fellow farm ministers in Brussels.
He said Paris stands by an agreement with Germany in October 2002 on funding for the CAP through to 2013.
That agreement has never been formally challenged by France's EU partners, but a number of countries notably Britain have made no secret of their opposition.
The budget talks are the focus of a June 16 and 17 summit in Brussels, but the meeting will be overshadowed by the fallout from last Sunday's French referendum, which is likely to plunge the EU into a prolonged period of political introspection.
And if Dutch voters who went to the polls yesterday reject the constitution, the EU will be even more so at sea without a political compass.
However, when budget talks eventually get under way again, the October 2002 agreement between French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder could be on its last legs, unless the Germans and the French can get over the French No vote, which has put them on opposite sides of the fence in EU politics for the first time in 50 years.
