Brussels, 21/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Ministers for Agriculture left each other on Tuesday around 20pm without having been able to reach an agreement by qualified majority over the European Commission proposal aiming to reform the Common Market Organisation for sheep and goat meat, notably through the introduction of a fixed subsidy replacing variable subsidies based on market prices. Certain Member States such as Portugal, Greece, Spain, Ireland and Austria felt that the level of subsidies granted to the sector according to the latest compromise text by the Belgian Presidency was too low, while two other delegations (Sweden and Denmark) emphasised that the price to be paid for this reform was too great. As the reform should enter into force on 1 January 2002 at the latest, the present system of subsidies will be extended for one year.
Without modifying the main Commission provisions (flat subsidies of EUR 21 per ewe), though the Belgian Presidency had authorised the Member States to manage part of the subsidies as they saw fit by making available national budgets for an additional total amount of EUR 70 million (compared to the initial proposal). Commissioner Franz Fischler, who had nevertheless accepted to continue until the exhaustion of his budgetary margin for manoeuvre, warned from the outset that this failure will turn against the Member States: the level of subsidies in 2002 will be even weaker than that proposed, as it will depend upon market prices which are presently high (notably due to the consequences of foot and mouth). Mr Fischler also explained that the absence of reform would have a significant budgetary impact, since the Commission had gambled on savings totalling of EUR 500 million in 2002. The Council President Anemie Neyts, commented with bitterness that the more negotiations continue the more fundamental elements from the initial Commission proposal where brought into question.