Brussels, 19/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday in Brussels, the EU Agriculture Ministers reached agreement by qualified majority voting on changes to the sheep and goatmeat sector that will come into force on 1 January 2002. Austria, Ireland and Sweden voted against the Presidency compromise document that took up most of Franz Fischler's proposal. The main amendment is the creation of national budget envelopes for a total of EUR 72 million that the Member States can distribute among their farmers. The Agriculture Council accepted the broad outline of the Commission's proposal, viz: establishing a EUR 21 premium per head for ewe farmers and EUR 16.8 for farmers selling sheep milk and goat farmers; and introducing an additional EUR 7 premium per head for goat and sheep farmers in areas where this type of farming contributes significantly to the rural economy.
The Council also agreed to continue the scheme providing aid to seed producers for another two marketing years, but in order to stop expenditure spiralling in this connection, maximum guaranteed amounts have been introduced for each Member State. The maximum aid had been calculated on the basis of a reference period of the last 5 years plus 5%. The German Agriculture Minster, Martin Wille, felt that this legislative agreement would make it possible to keep Community expenditure down to the level of EUR 100 million a year (as opposed to EUR 110 million, the 2000 level).