Brussels, 20/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - The EU agriculture ministers have, for their meeting on Thursday 27 June in Luxembourg, a very varied agenda but without any major decisions at the end of the day. The meeting will be the last under the presidency of Miguel Arias Canete. In addition to the adoption of conclusions on fruit and vegetables, agricultural insurance or the European Veterinary Fund, the Agriculture Council will seek to bring the issue of ethyl alcohol out of deadlock, will discuss several issues relating to food safety and to veterinary policy (BSE, zoonoses and food hygiene) and should confirm its divided position on the subject of the protection and denomination of feta cheese. Furthermore, the Commission will present medium term prospects for the main markets (see EUROPE of 20 June, p.9), while Portugal (and perhaps France also) will make its contribution to the debate on mid-term revision of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
The points on the Council agenda may be summarised as follows:
- Agricultural alcohol: Bringing the issue out of deadlock will depend on the Commission's stance on the problem of the German monopoly on alcohol. For the rest, the Council has already reached an agreement on the more technical elements of the proposal, on the base of a compromise Presidency text (a regulation providing for specific measures for the market of ethyl alcohol or alcohol of agricultural origin, including synthetic alcohol solely in the aim of having statistical information available). While most of the delegations would agree not to include German national aid in this framework, the Commission as well as Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are opposed to it in principle. Commissioner Franz Fischler, who had shown proof of a certain amount of flexibility during the last Council, could propose keeping the Article 10 in question by introducing provisions authorising certain exemptions, for example for the production of biological ethyl alcohol.
- Feta cheese: The Council will examine the recent Commission proposal aimed at including Greek feta cheese in the list of protected names of origin (AOP) (see EUROPE of 15 June, p.9). As during the last Special Agricultural Committee (SAC), the delegations restated their positions (Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom against the proposal, and abstention from France, Austria and Ireland), the Council is expected to find itself in the impossibility of enacting on this issue and it will then be up to the Commission to assume the tricky responsibility of adopting the proposal, or not. This entails the risk of leaving the door open to a new appeal before the Court of Justice that would be introduced by the countries that consider feta is a generic name and that this product may be produced elsewhere than in certain regions of Greece. In 1999, the Court had ruled that these countries were right, considering that the name of feta had become of common usage.
- Zoonoses: Ministers will take stock of the work on two proposals: a directive (relating to the surveillance of zoonoses) and a regulation (concerning the control of such diseases). The first proposal does not cause much difficulty, unlike the second which raises three major problems: - delays in the implementation of controls; - their scope (some countries want all serotypes of salmonella to be covered); - and above all their financing (this last point coming into the broader debate on credits available for Community veterinary policy, see below). A compromise solution concerning the financing of these measures could consist in the fixing of a "rendezvous clause" allowing review of this question after several years. The countries that consider the Commission's proposals are not ambitious enough include Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden. We point out that the European Parliament adopted its opinion in first reading on these proposals on 15 May (see EUROPE of 17 May, p.15). It mainly called for target values to be fixed for controlling sheep and cattle and sanctions for any Member States that do not comply with the minimum control requirements.
- Food hygiene: The Council could reach a political agreement (by qualified majority) on the proposal of regulation on food hygiene, which provides for the application of rules throughout the production chain and for the traceability of all foodstuffs as well as of ingredients entering into their composition. For this, it will be necessary, however, for the Commission to rally to a compromise on the scope of these provisions (mainly the inclusion of producers delivering small quantities of products to local markets).
- BSE: Several subjects will be tackled, the most important of which concerns the growth in the number of BSE cases discovered in Ireland. The Irish ministers will seek to convince their partners not to decide to take prohibition measures, although this country should logically be placed in the category of a high risk geographical area. The other subjects include: - the national measure that France is willing to take concerning the spine of small ruminants (France hopes to lower the age of the animal from 12 to 6 months, after which this specified risk material should be removed); - the question of knowing whether it is suitable to take Community measures on withdrawing the intestines of small ruminants.
- Mid-term review of the CAP: as miscellaneous item, Portugal will submit a memorandum, dated 13 June, entitled "Portugal: A Member state heavily penalised by imbalances in Eaggf-guarantee support", in which it opposes a re-nationalisation of the CAP and/or the suspension of its protective nature. Lisbon is, moreover, in favour of a strengthening of the first pillar (market support) and the "moderate, compulsory and uniform modulation throughout the Union" of direct aid for the transfer of credits to the second pillar (rural development). The new French Minister could also present his country's stance in this field.
- Fruit and vegetables: in the light of the report submitted by the Commission in January 2000, ministers should adopt conclusions stressing that "the time has come to complete the modernisation" of the common market organisation regime for fruit and vegetables, the reform of which was begun in 1996 and amplified in 1999.
They should, notably, invite the Commission to: - proposes amendments to the regulation relating to the constitution and the functioning of operational funds, providing greater autonomy to the decision-making bodies of producer organisations; - propose measures of encouragement, limited in time and on a sliding scale, to encourage (…) the merger of existing organisations, the setting up and functioning of associations of producer organisations; - alter the provisions in force so that investments by producer organisations may be financed either by the operational funds or by rural development programmes.
The Council should also ask the Commission to study the problem of the marketing of wild berries and mushrooms in certain areas of the EU, France wanting to add bigareau and the possibility of considering agricultural insurance as eligible under the operational programmes, as well as, if need be, establishing pilot implementing programmes.
- Agricultural insurance: ministers, who took note on 18 March of a memorandum by the Spanish Presidency on the subject, could approve conclusions urging the Commission to: - contribute to improving risk-management in the agricultural and breeding sectors by engaging in studies and analyses not only of the risks facing farmers and breeders, but also of the specific appropriate instruments to protect them; - exercise a follow-up of risk management policies undertaken in each Member state and, if need be, make any proposal it deems necessary; - promote the adoption of measures that could encourage and improve risk management in different sectors, such as the inclusion of insurance costs incurred by organisations of fruit and vegetable producers in expenses eligible under their operational funds, within the limits of the existing financial framework.
- European veterinary funds: with, as backdrop, another memorandum drawn up in April by the Spanish Presidency, European Agriculture ministers could reach conclusions stressing, among other things, the need to "enhance the means placed at the disposal of the EU's veterinary funds", while involving the whole production sector of animal origin in the financing of sanitary measures. This text should also place emphasis on the importance of "placing more importance on prevention policy in relation to compensation policy". The draft conclusions, that still need examining by Coreper on Monday, is up against the opposition of four delegations (Germany, Britain, Netherlands and Sweden) which certainly do not want these funds to have a large financial envelope.
May we also add that, as miscellaneous items, the issue of GMOs should be broached by Germany and that of tobacco by the Commission. Ministers should approve through a qualified majority, without debate, two proposals on opening up Community import quotas for beef from Argentina (10,000 tonnes of "Hilton Beef" for the 2002/03 marketing year) and Paraguay (1,000 tonnes).
