On November 29, as part of the Polish - French intergovernmental consultations, Stanislaw Kalemba, Polish Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, met in Warsaw with Stephane Le Foll, French Minister of Agriculture and Forestry. During the bilateral discussion, the ministers expressed their satisfaction with the current, good Polish - French cooperation in the area of agriculture, which was even deepened in the process of negotiating the Common Agricultural Policy 2014-2020.
The main topic of the meeting was the presentation of positions on European Union trade agreements with the USA and Canada in the area of agriculture and the WTO Ministerial Conference in Bali. The Polish side also raised the issues of the EU Association Agreement with Ukraine and its potential consequences for Polish agriculture.
Minister Kalemba presented Polish position on the use of instruments of agricultural market regulation, including increase of intervention price and regulation of the tobacco sector. The Ministers also discussed the issue of cultivation of GM crops in the European Union.
During the meeting the Ministers agreed to the framework of further, closer bilateral cooperation.
Minister Le Foll presented the initiative to establish a Franco- Polish Joint Working Group on Agriculture explaining that Polish and French cooperation has strategic nature because of the importance of agricultural sector to the economy of both countries. Minister Kalemba fully supported further Polish - French bilateral cooperation in the field of agriculture. He was of the opinion that the Joint Working Group will be a good opportunity to exchange views and seek common interests, formulating common positions in areas related to, among others, the Common Agricultural Policy, and EU trade policy.
