It was last year. French secretary of state for trade Hervé Novelli was addressing the participants of a Rungis meeting after a morning of discussions. Talking to the people of the French wholesale markets, he noted that “…we will certainly meet pretty soon to talk of the European Services Directive”.
To say this little sentence created a storm would be to underestimate the impact on everyone present. Wholesale markets were at that time enjoying more or less a new status after long years of negotiation with the authorities.
Finally, the perimeter of protection had become a perimeter of reference, but kept its original purpose - to regulate the wholesale activity in the near neighbourhood of a market. Everyone knew at that time that everything was not resolved, but it was a global relief. All of a sudden, the wholesale markets had to face a new threat. The extremely liberal directive pointed to the perimeter as a possible distortion of competition. The feeling was that everything had to be done, once again, to convince authorities it was not.
To tell the truth, the first meetings between the markets and the secretary of state for trade teams have been quite chaotic. The government had in mind to transcript the whole directive almost word for word into the French corpus of laws and therefore the perimeter of reference had to disappear, jeopardising the very existence of the markets. Happily, two events saved them.
First, a senate report underlined the necessity to implement the directive more carefully. Second, the markets, the towns where they are located and the wholesale tenants stood together and put in an enormous effort to explain again and again why the perimeter did not distort competition and did not break the rules of commerce, according to Brussels law.
The role of the French federation of wholesale markets president, Yves Durand, has also been key. The mayor of the northern town of Lomme is a fervent enforcer of the equilibrium between different kinds of retail and as a member of parliament, he knew when it was time to negotiate with the state.
For now, the danger seems kept at bay. As the dust comes down, these last 10 months have seen a renewed federation that is more proactive and eager to have its say on the different topics related to wholesale markets. This is good news. And maybe there is a collateral effect to this; the market of Chateaurenard, which left the federation a dozen years ago, has lately decided to rejoin.
