Brussels, 16/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - The trickiest dossier to be covered by the Council of EU agriculture ministers on Tuesday 20 September, in Brussels, will be whether or not to continue the Community programme for distribution of food to the poor of Europe. Ministers will also discuss a subject that is dear to the Polish presidency of the EU Council of Ministers, namely the use of biomass energy from agriculture. Furthermore, three countries have called for discussion to be on follow-up to the crisis that has affected fruit and vegetable producers. The Czech Republic, supported by many recent entrants to the EU (in 2004 and 2007), will submit requests concerning the complementary national direct payment.
On Tuesday, all eyes will be on the Czech Republic, as it is the only country among the six countries (Germany, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark) blocking the continuation of aid for the distribution of food to the very poor, that is taking part in the programme. The above six countries stress that the programme must no longer depend on Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) but on social policy, which comes under the responsibility of each member state. The fact that the Czech Republic is rallying to the majority position would allow the Council to have the qualified majority required for adopting the Commission's proposal on continuation of the programme. Within the financial framework for the period 2014-2020, the Commission provides for the sum of €2.8 billion for the distribution of food to the EU's poorest (not under CAP but as part of the social measures of Strategy 2020).
In orders to take account of the ruling of the EU General Court, the Commission adopted, on 10 June this year, a regulation considerably reducing EU aid to the poor in 2012 (from €500 million to €113 million). In its ruling of 13 April 2011, the General Court had decided that only the provision of food from intervention stocks could be covered by the programme (and not the purchase of food from the market). Successive reforms have considerably reduced stocks. Only 162,000 tonnes of cereals and 54,000 tonnes of skimmed milk power are available for the 2012 programme. Given the outlook of the market, stocks and therefore the programme also could disappear in 2013.
Biomass. European agriculture ministers will hold an exchange of views on the theme of using biomass of agricultural origin for energy, an important element of CAP, on the basis of a questionnaire drawn up by the Polish presidency. Presenting the conclusions of a conference on renewable energies organised in Sopot on 16 July, the presidency puts three questions to ministers:
How should sustainable development of renewable energy sources (in particular those using by-products and residues from agricultural production) in rural areas be effectively supported under the new CAP and the cohesion policy?
Should ambitious climate objectives of the EU support the development of dispersed renewable energy sources using locally available resources?
How should the new CAP contribute to an increase in agricultural incomes, taking into account the inclusion of the EU climate objectives in the CAP?
Fruit and vegetables. Given the serious difficulties encountered by the fruit and vegetable sector, the Spanish and French agriculture ministers, Rosa Aguilar and Bruno Le Maire, have already announced their intention to propose measures to their partners for regulation of the sector, including income-insurance for producers in times of crisis (see EUROPE 10446). The E.coli bacteria crisis considerably affected the demand for tomatoes, salad and cucumbers. Peach and nectarines, the fruit most in demand during the summer months, were also severely affected, with the producers of such fruit in difficulty due to the fact that supply was particularly plentiful while demand was low.
The Czech Republic and other countries (Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia) will present a joint declaration to the Council, in which they express their concern about the future implementation, in 2012, of the complementary national direct payments system. Theses countries consider that the proposal currently tabled does not respect the principle of equal treatment of European farmers. They call on the European Commission to withdraw its proposal and invite the Commission to discuss the matter with the new EU member states. They also point out that the modulated 10% of direct payments in 2012 in old member states are to be transferred and used in rural development, while some new member states cannot do the same with their complementary national direct payments. (LC/transl.jl)