EU agriculture and fisheries ministers will meet in Brussels on Monday 6 March to discuss inter alia, the future of the common agricultural policy (CAP). In fisheries, they will give their initial reaction to the proposal for a management plan for anchovy and sardine stocks in the Adriatic Sea (see EUROPE 11733).
Following the launch by the European Commission of a public consultation on modernising and simplifying the CAP and building on a number of recent debates on the same matter, ministers will be invited to share their ideas on the future of the CAP.
The Maltese Presidency of the Council has prepared a paper to guide the discussions (see EUROPE 11733). France is expected once again to repeat its calls for a more effective policy on risk and agricultural crisis management (see EUROPE 11615). The withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU will have repercussions for the CAP budget which worry a number of ministers.
Animal welfare. The Commission will update the Council on the latest developments in the setting up of the EU platform on animal welfare. On 30 January last, the Commission launched a call for applications to select the platform’s 40 members. Its first meeting will be held in Brussels on 6 June and the second is pencilled in for November 2017.
Lumpy skin disease. The Croatian delegation will inform ministers of its concerns over the preventive measures taken in the Republic of Croatia to address the lumpy skin disease epidemic affecting cattle. Croatia will also ask the Commission to consider: - compensation for farmers for the costs and losses incurred; - amending decision 2016/2008 for 2018 and include an “exit strategy” for the movement of vaccinated cattle within the EU when vaccination is no longer performed.
Dual quality of foodstuffs. On the initiative of the Hungarian and Slovak delegations, ministers will be informed of the issue of different quality of foodstuffs with the same name and labelling, sold in different EU countries and often from the same producer. Hungary and Slovakia will share the results of a series of tests carried out on cases of dual quality of foodstuffs and ask the Commission to consider appropriate action including legislation at EU level.
Food supply chain. The Bulgarian, Czech, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Slovak and Slovenian delegations will present their non-paper on “Better functioning of the Food Supply Chain”, addressing unfair trade practices and improving the position of farmers’ in the supply chain.
Elsewhere, Germany will report on the outcome of the meeting of the G20 agriculture ministers (in Berlin in January), which focused on the issues of water, antibiotics and digitisation. The Polish delegation will express its concerns about the market situation in the fruit sector (apples and pears), resulting from continuation of the Russian ban on the import of agricultural products from the EU.
The delegations of Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Romania and Slovenia will present a note on implementation of voluntary coupled support. They are concerned about the Commission scrutiny of national decisions and its impact on the effective implementation of voluntary coupled support measures, and will ask for more flexibility. Lastly, the Italian delegation will brief ministers on the outcome of the first forum on the EU rice sector, which took place in Milan on 20 February. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)