Brussels, 20/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - Contrary to all expectations, the Agriculture Council, which met in Luxembourg on Tuesday, reached a compromise on the establishment of a series of measures, proposed by Commissioner Franz Fischler on 13 February, in order to right the balance on the beef market.
Finally, the threat by the European Commission to throw its "beef package" out if the Council did not manage to reach an agreement, will have had an effect. The Member States mainly feared that giving up one of its measures, namely that of raising the intervention ceiling, would reduce to nothing their efforts for putting a brake on the production potential and relieving a market hit by the BSE crisis.
This compromise, which received opposition from Spain and the Netherlands, was obtained by slightly amending the Commission's initial proposals. It is mainly withdrawal of the proposal suggesting that rights to a special premium for male bovine animals should be individualised according to the farm, which allowed delegations to accept the package as a whole. The content of the compromise covers: (1) Intervention purchases: The annual public purchase of beef is increased from 350,000 to 500,000 for this year (the Commission had proposed doing away with this ceiling); (2) Density factor: Reduction from 1.9 adult cattle units (UGB) per hectare in 2002 to 1.8 UGB/ha from 1 January 2003 for the maximum density per hectare in order to be able to benefit from male bovine premiums and suckler cow premiums (instead of 2 UGB/ha at the present time). The possibility of postponing revision of the current threshold of 2 UGB/ha by integrating it in the mid-term review of CAP reform planned for next year was refused by France; (3) Ceilings for right to special premiums: As indicated above, the proposal to create a system of rights to individual premiums was abandoned and replaced by a reduction in the national ceilings. Thus, for 2002 and 2003, the fixing of regional ceilings for rights to the special premium for male bovines will be fixed on the basis of the average number of payments made from 1997 to 1999 (instead of 2000 at the present time), that is: 228,787 heads of cattle for Belgium, 221,688 for Denmark, 1,536,113 for Germany, 141,606 for Greece, 643,525 for Spain, 1,743,779 for France, 1,028,153 for Ireland, 478,997 for Italy, 18,922 for Luxembourg, 126,346 for the Netherlands, 338,720 for Austria, 160,720 for Portugal, 200,000 for Finland, 233,481 for Sweden and 1,361,978 for the United Kingdom; (4) Ceiling for special premium for young male bovine animals: The Member States may modify or give a dispensation from the limit of 90 animals per farm and per age category for the special premium on the basis of objective criteria linked to a rural development policy and only on condition that they take environmental aspects as well as employment into account, it is stated in the text of the compromise, while the Commission initially proposed administrative and inspection costs. (5) Changes to the suckler cow regime: The fixing in 2002 and 2003 of a minimum 15% threshold (the Commission tabling on 20%) and a 40% ceiling for heifers (exoneration the first year and 5% derogation during the second for the United Kingdom, 5% derogation in the case of Austria) in herds eligible for the suckler cow premium. This provision will not apply to producers that benefit from fewer than 14 premiums. In 2002 and 2003, the rights to the suckler cow premium reallocated to the national reserve will not be redistributed until 31 December 2003. For the United Kingdom, this rule will only be applicable in 2003.
The Fifteen reached a compromise to extend by three harvesting years, until 2003/2004, the current regime for aid to production in the olive oil sector. Strongly supported by Germany, the Commission proposed renewal for two years. The producer countries finally had to rally to this compromise: Greece, Italy and Portugal recommended renewal of five years, together with a revision clause during the second year, whereas Spain made its position more flexible by accepting a little over two years. France is satisfied with two years, the time it takes to finalise the registering of production areas to be able to carry out controls. The other points of agreement (settled at the level of the Special Agriculture Committee) are: (1) Classification: maintaining the current provisions on the denominations "virgin olive oil" and "extra virgin" (the Commission proposed replacing these names by "raw olive oil") and rejection of the proposal aimed at using the term "standard olive oil" when olive oils are made up of a blend between virgin olive oil and oil of a more ordinary kind. Thus there should be the denomination "olive oil composed of refined olive oil and virgin olive oil"; (2) Origin: The designation of origin should be established in conformity with the labelling indicating the country where the olives were harvested as well as the country where the oil was produced. Only the presence of these two operations in one and the same country will confer the origin of the oil to the country; (3) Mixes: mixes of olive oil and grain oil (plant) will not be banned but the rules of labeling will be tightened so as to avoid any confusion between olive oil and oil composed of mixes; (4) The use by Spain of talc as technological auxiliary in the extraction process: Spain will finally be able to continue to use it (to improve yield without altering quality), whereas France, Greece and Italy have reservations (according to them, this substance could harm the image of the quality and "naturalness" of olive oil). The compromises found allow for the use of talc (magnesium silicon) as long as its residue level is nil, that it does not alter the oil and that it is of food quality.
At the same time, the Council reached agreement on a three-year prolongation of aid to the hop sector, which will remain at its present level of 480 euro/hectare. Initially, the Commission proposed a two-year extension, until the 2002 harvest, with a review of the current regime on the basis of a report published before 31 December 2002. The European Parliament and Germany (which alone accounts for almost 80% of the production of hops in the EU) wanted a five-year prolongation.
Following the waiving of the British reservation, the Council unanimously authorized the granting, by france, of 19 million euro in aid to the distilling of three million hectoliters of table wine (accepted by the Commission but with a limit of 1.5 million hectoliters). These public funds are intended to encourage producers to have part of their wine distilled so as to clear the market at the approach of the new harvest.. The French aid will allow for the price offered by the Commission for this distilling to be doubled. The Council also adopted, without debate, the regulation on the reform of sugar, following the agreement reached at its 22 May meeting.