VZCZCXRO0721
RR RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLZ RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHFR #0796 1671128
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 161128Z JUN 09 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY PARIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6453
RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 3022
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC

UNCLAS PARIS 000796 
 
SIPDIS 
 
BRUSSELS PASS USEU FOR AGMINCOUNSELOR 
STATE FOR OES; EUR/ERA; EEB/TPP/ABT/BTT (BOBO); 
STATE PASS USTR FOR MURPHY/CLARKSON; 
USDA/FAS FOR OA/MICHENER; 
OCRA/HALE/NENON; 
ONA/RIEMENSCHNEIDER/YOUNG/DENNIS; 
OSTA/JONES; 
EU POSTS PASS TO AGRICULTURE AND ECON 
GENEVA FOR USTR, ALSO AGRICULTURE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR ETRD EU FR
 
SUBJECT: Parliamentary Elections:  Ominous Signs for U.S.-French Ag 
Relations 
 
REF:  2008 STATE 01240 
 
¶1.  Summary:  Surprisingly strong showings by both President 
Sarkozy's UMP party (28 percent) and the Greens (16 percent) are 
likely to have negative implications for the U.S. regarding France's 
direction on a range of agricultural issues including biotechnology, 
multilateral trade negotiations and France's effectiveness in 
pushing its agenda on "societal concerns" at the EU level.  Ag 
Minister Barnier, who headed the UMP ticket and easily won election, 
is now well positioned to become a key EU Commissioner in the fall 
(possibly getting the agricultural portfolio).  During the French EU 
presidency, he emerged as the leading proponent of the idea that 
societal concerns and European Preference should be trade policy 
criteria.  Anti-biotech activist Jose Bove won a Parliamentary seat 
on the Green ticket, effectively giving him immunity from 
prosecution and sentencing for several biotech crop destructions in 
France. End summary 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  The robust showings by both the ruling UMP party and the 
Green party  (effectively challenging the Socialists for second 
place), are widely viewed as a mandate for continuation and even 
strengthening of the GOF's aggressive environmental agenda under the 
super-ministry headed by Jean-Louis Borloo, the third ranking member 
of the Sarkozy government.  (The Green party ticket included 
anti-biotech activist Jose Bove, whose successful bid to become a 
parliamentarian effectively gives him immunity from prosecution and 
sentencing for several biotech crop destructions.)  One notable 
aspect of the "green" agenda is France's populist approach to 
biotechnology. The Sarkozy government's dissolution of the previous 
competent biotech authority, composed largely of geneticists, and 
its replacement by an authority composed of both a scientific and a 
socio-ethical committee, led to a moratorium on biotech cultivation 
in France.  The election results can only reaffirm France's resolve 
to export this socially-oriented model for biotech decision making 
to the EU level, and to continue its campaign to marshal political 
opposition to the 10-year reauthorization of the one corn variety 
(Mon 810) currently approved for planting in the EU. 
 
¶3. (SBU)    In the area of international trade policy, a Green Party 
representative, in articulating the party's position at a press 
conference given by the Agricultural Chamber, stated firmly that the 
party believed that agriculture should be removed from the WTO. 
This is a belief that is shared by many of France's agricultural 
elite, and that could gain additional traction from the results of 
the election. 
 
¶4.   (SBU)  In the wake of the European Parliamentary elections, 
Sarkozy said that Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier was at the top 
of France's proposed list of candidates as possible new EU 
commissioners.  Barnier reportedly seeks several key posts (among 
which may be agriculture or trade). Sarkozy indicated that France 
and Germany had "in principle" agreed to support the other's 
candidate. 
 
¶5.   (SBU)   Comment:   We believe that as EU Commissioner, Barnier 
would undoubtedly continue to push his agenda to legitimize 
"societal concerns" and European Preference as criteria for EU ag 
trade policy decision making.  As French minister of Agriculture, he 
already has employed this rationale to argue against the importation 
of a number of products including U.S. poultry subject to 
anti-microbial treatment.