Brussels, 30/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - At the meeting of the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) on Friday 27 March, several member states were critical of the draft delegated act on removing certain requirements on agricultural ethanol. However it proved impossible to form a majority that would allow the Council formally to oppose this regulation that was proposed by the Commission.
The regulation, adopted by the Commission on 20 February, provides for the removal of: - the requirement on the EU to carry out an ethanol market assessment and the requirement on member states to provide information quarterly on production, use and stocks; - the requirement on operators to provide an import licence to bring agricultural ethanol into the EU. The Commission argues that the delegated act will simplify procedures.
At the CSA meeting, several countries, such as France, Italy, Poland, Greece, Austria, Hungary, Belgium and Slovakia, were of the view that removal of these requirements would have serious consequences and cited the following grounds in challenging the delegated regulation: - in the absence of a market assessment, the only data available are those of Eurostat; these data, it was argued, are not complete and information on the sector could be missing; - no longer needing an import licence will be of benefit only to the countries which export ethanol to the EU (Brazil and the United States, in particular) and would certainly not help the EU; - the legal basis for the delegation (Article 223 para. 2 of the single common market organisation) makes no provision for the removal of information.
Taking the opposite view, a number of countries, including the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland and Finland, backed the Commission text because simplification of the common agricultural policy (CAP) is now an EU priority. Those countries opposed to the regulation would have to gather a qualified majority (needed in cases of objection) but have been unable to do so.
Like the European Parliament, which would like to see the deadline for objections to this delegated act extended by two months, several countries - France, Italy, Poland, Greece, Belgium, Slovakia et al - wanted the Council to request just such an extension. They failed, however, to obtain a simple majority (at least 15 countries) in favour of such a move. (Lionel Changeur)