Greece and France share excellent bilateral relations since the formal establishment of the Greek State in 1833. Since 1981, the Franco-Greek relations in the agricultural sector are arranged within the EU Policy framework, without any specific cooperation agreement on a bilateral basis.
French economy is the second, after Germany, largest in EU countries. As regards the agricultural sector, France is the second, after USA, larger exporter of agricultural goods world wide. Indeed, at international level, France is the largest wine exporter, while is ranked 2nd and 3rd as a cheese product and butter exporter respectively. Further, France is one of the largest exporting countries of pork and beef meat internationally.
France is considered, among other countries, a constantly major contributor of Foreign Direct Investment towards our country. During the last decade, French Direct Iinvestment is mainly directed towards the food and beverages sector as well as towards services (e.g. banks, insurance companies).
On the other hand, regarding the food sector, only few Greek companies have invested on French enterprises.
At the European Union level, and for the agricultural and food sector, France and Greece share common interests and pair with each other on issues relevant to: the maintenance of the Common Agricultural Policy; the need for support and protection of the EU agricultural sector; WTO negotiations on agriculture; support and protection of Mediterranean agricultural and food products; issues related to EU Mediterranean Policy. Accordingly, the collaboration between officials and experts of the Greek Ministry of Rural Development and Food and officials and experts of it/s French counterpart has been excellent on both political and technical matters.
On the 8-9/10/2007, the French Minister of Agriculture Mr. Michel Barnier visited our country and had bilateral consultations with the political leaders of the Greek Ministry of Rural Development and Food. Among other issues, Mr. Barnier expressed the French concern for the severe agricultural and environmental problems of our country, caused by the extensive firestorms of the 2007 summer period.
During the last 20 years, the cooperation between the Greek Ministry of Rural Development and Food and the agricultural/economic attaches of the French Embassy was continuous and fruitful on all relevant issues.
Recently, on the 21/09/2009, two members of the European Studies program run by the French school for public administration (E.N.A.) visited the Greek Ministry´s Directorate for Agricultural Policy. During this visit an exchange of experts’ opinion took place regarding the CAP future, as well as future financial perspectives and policy coherence.
The agricultural trade balance between Greece and France appears steadily in deficit for Greece the last few years. This is an important element, given that for both countries, the agricultural balance constitutes a significant part of their total trade balance.