EU agriculture ministers will come to a decision on unfair trading practices – the sensitive issue in the draft conclusions on strengthening the position of farmers on the food supply chain – when they meet on Monday 12 December (see EUROPE 11679).
That is what may be drawn from the discussions that took place on Monday 5 December within the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) when experts examined the third set of draft Council conclusions (presented by the Slovak Presidency of the Council) on enhancing the farmers’ position on the food supply chain.
This draft text was rather well received by the delegations, largely because the text keeps reference to putting in place EU legislation to combat unfair trading practices within square brackets. Ministers will have to come to a decision on this point at the Council meeting in Brussels on Monday 12 and Tuesday 13 December.
Changes were made to the previous version of the draft conclusions. New paragraphs were introduced on the lack of transparency and asymmetric information. Derogations have been included specifically for the agriculture sector from competition law for producer organisations and cooperatives. The possibility was raised of introducing of an EU agricultural risk-management policy. Italy, in particular, and Portugal had called for greater transparency on price setting and on information for consumers.
At the request of the Netherlands and Denmark, the draft text calls on the Commission to undertake an impact study and to examine how national systems to combat unfair trading practices are implemented and operate.
Germany, Denmark and Sweden are not happy with the paragraphs that make reference to an EU risk-management policy as this could prejudice future debates on the reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)