In a joint paper published last week, the French and German farm ministers agreed the main objectives for the CAP reform, but failed to set a figure for the future budget - currently worth about €50 billion euros a year.
But Paris and Berlin did signal their opposition to equal per-hectare subsidies for farmers across the EU, saying it would not reflect the economic reality in Europe - a reference to the lower costs faced by farmers in poorer central and eastern states.
The current level of direct EU subsidies to farmers varies from over €500 per hectare in Greece to less than €100 in Latvia.
"The Franco-German position is a very conservative one. It defends the interests of their farmers, but not of farmers from other member states," Poland's Marek Sawicki told reporters at an informal meeting of EU farm ministers near Brussels.
Sawicki said Poland had been in talks with France and Germany to try and agree a joint position between the three countries, but Paris and Berlin had published their paper before Poland had finalised its position.
"This is a rather unsuccessful attempt to exert pressure on other member states," he added.
France's Farm Minister Bruno Le Maire said the Franco-German proposals had the support of around 20 EU governments, but added that the joint paper was designed to open up the CAP reform debate, not close it.
No dictating terms
Britain has led calls for a cut in EU farm spending, in order to fund new priorities such as climate change while maintaining overall budget discipline.
This puts it at odds with others such as France and Spain, who want the CAP budget to remain at its current level after 2013.
Britain's Agriculture Minister Caroline Spelman said the Franco-German paper contained some interesting ideas, but added there could be no repeat of previous CAP reforms when France and Germany largely dictated the final outcome.
"It's very different now with the Lisbon Treaty and co-decision making with the European Parliament. It's much harder, even if you're two big states out of the 27, you can't dictate terms," she said.
Despite its joint position with France, Germany's stance on the overall CAP budget has yet to be finalised, with ministries in Berlin keen to tackle the issue as part of talks on the overall EU budget from 2013-2020, officials said.
The European Commission is due to present it broad plans for the CAP reform in a policy paper on 17 November, ahead of detailed legislative proposals on the EU budget - including the CAP - next year.
(EurActiv with Reuters.)
