French farmers will have to repay millions of euros of public aid
Producers of fruit and vegetables will have to repay public aid paid by the French state between 1992 and 2002, several hundred million euros, according to a requirement of the European Union, said Monday the Minister of the Agriculture Bruno Le Maire.
"It is certain that we will have to initiate a procedure of reimbursements with the producers", declared Mr. Le Maire in an interview with the newspaper Le Parisien. "I do not want to expose France to a conviction which would force it to repay a larger sum in five or ten years," he explained. Mr. Le Maire did not indicate how much the producers will have to reimburse. The State will "be very careful that the situation of producers is analyzed on a case-by-case basis so as not to penalize the most fragile operators", simply underlined the Minister, without further details. The European Commission asked France at the end of January to recover more than 330 million euros in public aid paid in 1992 and 2002 to its fruit and vegetable producers, believing that they had distorted competition in the EU. The European executive opened an investigation into this matter in 2005. (DAD)
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