Brussels, 17/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - Milk, reform of the common agriculture policy (CAP), summer fruits and rice: these are the subjects discussed on Wednesday 16 July, at a meeting in Strasbourg between the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Dacian Ciolos, who is hoping for a second term in office, and the chair of the committee on agriculture of the European Parliament, Czeslaw Siekierski (EPP, Poland).
Ciolos also met the coordinators of the various political groups within this newly constituted agriculture committee: Germany's Albert Dess and Michel Dantin of France (EPP), the Italian MEP Paolo De Castro (S&D), James Nicholson (ECR, UK), Jens Rohde (ALDE, Denmark), Martin Häusling (Greens/EFA, Germany), Maria Lidia Senra Rogriguez (GUE/NGL, Spain) and John Stuart Agnew (ELDD, UK).
This meeting allowed the commissioner and the MEPs to start work on the topics which will be up for discussion up to the end of the mandate of the current European Commission (end of October 2014) and to take stock of certain sectors and commercial negotiations underway. Before the term of the current Commission ends, “we can make progress on two important topics: the organic package and the school schemes (fruit and vegetables and milk)”, said Ciolos. He pledged to continue close collaboration with the EP and to get to work quickly on the delegated acts which remain to be adopted on the implementation of the reform of the CAP. The first meeting of the agriculture committee will be on Wednesday 23 July; its agenda will include the dairy sector situation.
Milk, fruit and rice. The coordinators of the groups expressed their concerns on a number of issues: the dairy sector, implementation of the reform of the CAP and the current situation in the summer fruits (such as peaches and nectarines) and rice sectors. On milk, the Commission proposed to provide the European Parliament with a detailed document outlining the instruments available to manage the market and stressed the need to “continue the discussions” on the sensitive issue, given the wide range of situations and expectations across Europe.
For summer fruits and rice, Ciolos stressed that the European Commission is following developments in these sectors very closely and stands ready to act, “if necessary, once the member states concerned will send detailed analysis on the situation”. The commissioner told the MEPs that he had discussed the situation in the fruit and rice sectors with certain member states, on the sidelines of the most recent meeting of the Agriculture Council in Brussels on Monday 14 July, asking them to submit their latest data. He reportedly stressed that “the producer organisations have a part to play” in responding to the problems encountered by these two sectors. If necessary, the Commission can look into the need for crisis measures to be taken at EU level.
The Commissioner also discussed the agricultural aspects of the trade negotiations underway with these MEPs, particularly under the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).