Brussels, 13/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 12 May, the Greek Presidency of the Council presented EU experts at the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) its draft conclusions on the future of the fruit and vegetable sector. The majority of countries appear to support the text, on the condition that certain amendments are made.
These conclusions are based on the European Commission report analysing the fruit and vegetable sector after the 2007 reform - a report which was discussed at the Agriculture Council in April (see EUROPE 11070). The text for these conclusions could be finalised during the SCA on 2 June, with a view to its adoption at the Agriculture Council on 16 June.
During Monday's SCA, delegations such as Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ireland underlined the need to simplify rules for the fruit and vegetable sector. The draft text also refers to the complexity of the procedures for recognising and setting up producer organisations (PO). Both the Council and Commission note that the percentage of PO members is still low and even non-existent in certain countries, and that there are imbalances regarding the level of organisation from one country to another.
Although many countries gave a warm welcome to the draft conclusions, others such as Italy, France and Spain had more misgivings, even with regard to having such conclusions in the first place. These countries believe that as the common agricultural policy (CAP) reform has just been adopted, it is necessary to wait for its effective implementation before planning any reform for this sector.
Several countries, such as Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania, advocated more ambitious recommendations and were of the opinion that efforts (particularly in the budgetary field) should focus on areas or countries where the level of producer organisation is at its lowest. Other delegations, however, such as France and Denmark, thought it risky that in this period of austerity they should begin discussions on budgetary distribution. Some countries think that countries where producers are well organised should not be affected by a distribution towards less organised areas.
A number of other countries (including Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland and Sweden) criticised the paragraph proposed by the Presidency on crisis management tools. These countries do not agree with the sentence stating that producers' awareness should be raised on these crisis management measures, because this could have an impact on the market and consumers.
Some countries (including the Netherlands, Belgium and Slovakia) wanted the text to be more precise about the date for when the Commission could introduce legislative proposals (the draft conclusions at this stage retain the end of 2015). The Commission is reportedly reluctant to put forward a precise date because with the current changes (European Parliament elections and a new Commission) and the fact that the new European Parliament should still give its opinion on the fruit and vegetable report, it is unlikely that this time frame could be respected. (LC)