Brussels, 28/04/2010 (Agence Europe) - During a Special Agriculture Committee (SAC) on Monday 26 April, France, with the support of around 10 delegations (including Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic) expressed concern about certain demands made by Croatia regarding agriculture (sugar) and food safety (meat, milk, fish) within the framework of this country's accession negotiations to the EU.
Given that Croatia's accession negotiations are entering their “final phase”, France emphasised that certain difficulties still remain with regard to closing the agriculture chapter (chapter 11) in these talks. According to France, this is particularly the case with regard to the sugar sector, more precisely in connection to the demands made by the candidate country with regard to: - the granting on an exceptional basis of a specific duty-free import quota for raw cane sugar which would be in addition to that resulting from the negotiation linked to Article XXIV-6 of the GATT and the exceptional request of a full-time refiner. The French authorities called for “the utmost vigilance, at a time when the European sugar sector has just undergone reform and risks being severely affected by the outcome of all the bilateral trade negotiations currently underway”.
In response, the Commission explained that the quota proposals would be established on the basis of information requested from Croatia and included into a draft EU negotiating brief, which would be sent to Croatia before the summer and before being submitted to the Council of Ministers of the EU.
Health and Fisheries Chapter. France would also like the European Commission to remain firm with regard to the food safety chapter (Chapter 12) and fisheries (Chapter 13) in Croatia's EU accession negotiations. The Commission has urged Croatia to send it supplementary information regarding several of its requests for transition periods and derogations, notably: a deadline for modernising agricultural processing plants (meat, milk and fish) and to reach an agreement on untreated milk quality required for its marketing; the deadline for implementing standards for laying hen cages; increasing the co-financing rates in the EFF (European Fisheries Fund) for Croatian islands, maintaining craft-based fishing for five years, as well as maintaining traditional fishing materials. Meeting some of these requests could have a significant impact, according to the French authorities, which are ultimately calling on the Commission to regularly inform the member states about progress made in the negotiations that it is carrying out with Croatia in view of its European Union accession. (L.C./transl.fl).