The French Presidency of the EU does not want to wait until the end of negotiations on the Common Agricultural Policy 'health check' to open the post-2013 debate. This dossier will be launched as of the informal meeting of EU agriculture ministers, to be held from 21 to 23 September in Annecy. A working document has been prepared by Paris, which underlines the "new context," namely "the increase in the prices of certain primary agricultural materials, in particular cereals, oil-producing plants, butter and powdered milk since 2006". According to this text, "the increase in agricultural productivity, combined with the emergence of second generation biofuels, which are less of a competitor to food uses, should make it possible to release the tension in the markets," but "for the next decade at least, agriculture will probably live with uncertainty as to the resulting final balance between supply and demand". Furthermore, analysts are predicting "greater price instability" associated with "the wider opening of markets, climate change which will increase the frequency and range of natural hazards, the resurgence of health crises and its repercussions on the markets".
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