Brussels, 19/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - To prepare for the arrival of the thirteen agriculture ministers of the candidate countries (see below) the Agriculture Council was addressed by Commissioners Günter Verheugen, Franz Fischler and David Byrne on the Commission's document published at the end of January on enlargement and agriculture and successfully integrating the new Member States into the CAP. During the exchange of views, most Member States repeated their support for the Commission's approach to the gradual introduction of direct aid to new Member States but some delegations, including the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and, to a lesser extent, Denmark, again expressed reservations about this approach, pointing out that the introduction of direct aid for new EU Member States had not been set out in the Berlin agreement and could lead to the ceilings for the current Financial Perspectives being broken. They also felt the approach was incompatible with the aim of restructuring agriculture in the candidate countries. The Dutch agriculture minister Laurens-Jan Brinkhorst was reported to have been the most critical, echoing the German agriculture minister Renate Künast in drawing a direct link between enlargement and reform of the CAP, arguing that granting candidate countries direct aid until 2013 boded ill for the future of European agriculture. Ms Künast said it was essential to consider how the CAP would be funded after 2006. France and Germany also expressed doubts about the simplified approach chosen by the Commission for the payments of aid (payment per hectare applicable to the entire area farmed, for a limited time period), given the impact of such a system on managing production. They also felt that aid separated off from production would not meet the food safety and production monitoring objectives for the current direct aid system. Most delegations felt that the Commission's proposals on production quotas and other supply management instruments were balanced and reasonable, while all delegations stressed the importance of rural development measures (which would be 80% funded from the EU budget according to the Commission's proposals). The Commission's approach to rural development respects the targets set at the Berlin European Council in March 1999 in the eyes of most Member States.
Mr Byrne says there will not be any transitional measures for implementation of BSE legislation
At the press conference on Monday evening, David Byrne said he had stressed the importance of veterinary and phytosanitary issues and his concern has been shared by Member States. He insisted it was out of the question for transitional measures to be granted in terms of implementing BSE legislation. Any transition period, particularly in order to upgrade food processing plants, would only be granted if the products were exclusively sold in the candidate country in question. Some Member States had correctly indicated that they did not have all the necessary information to identify the food processing plants and the plans that would be implemented to meet these requirements, explained Mr Byrne. Commissioner Franz Fischler said that the Commission's approach was balanced, fair and well thought-out and would therefore form a good basis for the negotiations. He said the package decided upon respected the ceilings set in Berlin and prejudged neither the evolution of the Financial Perspectives after 2006 nor the future direction of the CAP. The "unity of the CAP" had therefore been preserved, in Mr Fischler's eyes. The Commissioner also presented the outcome of the Commission's study into the impact of enlargement on farming revenues in the candidate countries (see article on p.12).