Brussels, 22/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The "bilaterals" between officials of Member states, the Swedish Presidency and the European Commission, that took place on Tuesday at the same time as the meeting of the Agriculture Council, hinted at a favourable outcome to the difficult reform of the sugar sector. Parties managed to agree on a compromise text that united the assent of the Commission and most Member States. Here are the main elements of the text that was to be submitted to Ministers in the evening: - 5-year extension of the price regime; - substantial reduction of Community spending resulting from refunds of storage costs; - authorization of national aid to refining for Italy, Spain and Finland; - interim review clause for the regime in 2003/2004, sufficiently neutral not to prejudice the next reform.
Differences between the Fifteen, on the other hand, were not overcome regarding measures for changing the Common Market Organization (CMO) for beef.