The European Commission has dropped a long-running legal case against France after its government abandoned long-standing restrictions on the sale, distribution and handling of cereals within its country.

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Brussels announced today (17 October) that “the conditions for obtaining approval [for selling and distributing cereals in France] have been made more flexible.” Notably, in future, such licences will not be approved by industry bodies influenced by established cereals traders, but by the national inter-trade office for major crops, the ONIGC.


Also, the French government has scrapped previous requirements that traders must live in France, and minimum required levels of storage capacity and trading activity in the country.


The Commission had threatened a case at the European Court of Justice claiming such rules broke European Union freedom of trade rules.

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