Brussels, 08/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - The four principal objectives that the Spanish Presidency hopes to achieve and which Spanish Agriculture Minister, Miguel Arias Canete, outlined to the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee on Monday, are consolidating the European model of agriculture; putting the final touches to the common position on enlargement and following up WTO negotiations; restoring farmers' confidence in the production of food; and launching a debate on rural development against the backdrop of a mid-term review of the Common Agricultural Policy. The Presidency will focus on the enlargement negotiations which are now on the home strait. Mr Arias said that despite the problems that still have to be overcome, Spain has firmly decided to achieve common positions on the agriculture and regional policy chapters and also on the financial perspectives, explaining that the common positions would respect the both Community acquis and the financial framework as outlined in Berlin.
Enlargement. The new President of the Agriculture Council said that the Spanish Presidency would prioritise closing the agriculture chapter on horizontal issues, the common organisation of the markets and rural development. During the first part of the Presidency, the Commission would be unveiling a document on the agriculture chapter and ministers would be debating substantial issues such as how to decide on quotas and transition periods. Mr Arias explained that the Presidency favoured direct aid and setting transition periods of more than five years. Budgetary and financial issues would be closely examined to decide how the objectives could realistically be achieved since the next EU enlargement round would be taking place in the context of the single market and so it would be necessary, over and above the progress achieved in the pre-accession period, to make further efforts in particularly sensitive areas like veterinary and phytosantitary standards, food safety and animal welfare. Mr Arias hoped that the Agriculture Council would manage to regularly follow progress in the negotiations with the candidate countries by making comments and adopting conclusions for the General Affairs Council to consider so that the new Member States agriculture systems can be integrated into the EU in a balanced manner while common policies are maintained and the Community levels of food safety are guaranteed.
Reforming markets. The Presidency will provide the Council with various memoranda with the aim of establishing guidelines for making progress in tricky areas like reforming the common market in rice (the Commission's draft proposal is being opposed); the issue of growing vegetable proteins (based on a memorandum from six Member States unveiled back in December, the Presidency wants agreements to be signed at the Council and wants the Commission to put forward new guidelines for promoting the production of grain legumes, oilseeds, vegetable protein and dry feed); simplifying the fruit and vegetable market system; the issue of farm insurance against natural disasters (the Commission has already unveiled a preliminary report which the Presidency intends to look into with the aim of achieving Community harmonised insurance in the near future); and the issue of equal opportunities in rural life (on the agenda of the May Agriculture Council). The Presidency hopes that Council will take decisions on Commission proposals to extend the aid scheme for nuts (Spain wants the scheme to be launched on a permanent basis); setting guarantee thresholds for tobacco farmers for 2002-2004; improve monitoring of olive oil quality, geographical indications, organic farming and registered designations of origin.
Animal welfare. The Presidency wants to open a debate on the review of the 1990 regulation on the Community's contribution to veterinary expenditure through the veterinary fund, given that the various food safety scandals have clearly demonstrated that the Community budget is not sufficient for funding the necessary expenditure. It also wants to reopen negotiations with Latin American countries on veterinary standards covering trade with the EU and discuss at political level the use of vaccination to combat foot and mouth disease. The Council will continue its examination of proposals concerning African swine fever, medicines for lessor species and the welfare of non-commercial transport of pets.
Food safety. The Council will look at issues like combating zoonoses (salmonella, for example), hormone levels and food safety rules. The Presidency also wants to give Ministers information about improving food safety and will be continuing its examination of pesticide use (rehashing the current directives on pesticide residues) in order that the existing assessment programme can be fully operative. The Spanish Agriculture Minister explained that when it comes to seeds, they would be encouraging the adoption of the framework directive on phytosanitary protection and that it would also be necessary to look into the issue of plant reproductive material in the light of the controversy surrounding GMOs. In terms of environmental issues, Spain is counting on an agreement being signed on the prevention of forest fires and air pollution (in the run-up to the second United Nations forum on forests).
Rural Development. This will be discussed at the informal meeting of Agriculture Ministers in Murcia on 27/30 April.
Following a request for details from the CDU MEP Lutz Goepel about what the Presidency was planning with respect to farm insurance, Mr Arias explained that the Spanish government was itself pursuing an ambitious policy with 70% of farmers being covered for adverse weather conditions, and was intending to launch discussions on the implementation of a European insurance policy along the lines of those in Canada and Brazil. In response to questions from Mr Goepel and the Danish Liberal Niels Busk about whether the European non-vaccination policy might be reconsidered, the President of the Council said that reflection would be required on the option of emergency vaccination followed by slaughter and that research was continuing into a marker vaccine which would make it possible to distinguish between infected and vaccinated animals. French Socialist MEP George Garot asked the Presidency about the agricultural negotiations at the WTO. Mr Arias replied that the challenge ahead lay in separating aid from production in order to re-establish the multifunctionality of the various roles played by farmers. In response to questions from Mr Busk and Dominique Souchet (UEN, France) about meat and bone meal and the lack of substitute vegetable protein in Europe, Mr Arias said that the current "chaos" where each country takes different measures from its neighbours had to end and it should be decided once and for all whether meat and bone meal for pigs, poultry and fish should be totally banned or re-authorised rather than continuing with the current vague situation. Salvador Jové Peres (GUE/NGL, Spain) called the challenge of pursuing enlargement in the current financial perspectives an attempt to square the circle. Mr Arias responded that according to the available documentation, the cost of enlarging to ten new countries in 2004 could be met if the current financial framework were respected. He pointed out that for agriculture, the cost of enlargement was forecast as EUR 4.5 billion for arable farming, EUR 1.9 billion for the common markets in livestock farming and EUR 1.3 billion for rural development. He asserted that the most difficult chapter would be rural development since in some of the candidate countries, more than 40% of the working population worked on the land and these farmers would have to be guaranteed an acceptable level of income.