Public debate on reform of agricultural policy and food safety on agenda of Monday and Tuesday's Council

Brussels, 23/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - The EU's ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries will meet in Brussels on 27 and 28 January, chaired by Georges Drys, to debate new legislative proposals on the mid-term review of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), take note of the Commission's latest initiatives regarding food safety and adopt conclusions on fish-farming and the integration of the environment in the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). On the fringe of the Council, over dinner Monday evening, ministers will discuss EU proposals for agricultural negotiations within the WTO. The Council will begin Monday afternoon with the presentation of the work programme of the Greek Presidency.

Here is an overview of the topics on the agenda:

• Mid-term review of the CAP: during the public debate, ministers will have the opportunity of giving their first impressions of the package the Commission adopted on Tuesday (see EUROPE of 23 January, p.9 and 21 January, p.9). These proposals will be analysed in detail throughout February within different specialised Council working groups. The Special Agricultural Committee (SAC) will be referred the issue for the first time on 10 February.

As soon as they were adopted, Sweden issued its general satisfaction to the proposed mid-term review, reaffirming its attachment to the rationale of consumption rather than aid to production. According to the Agriculture Minister Ann-Christin Nykvist, the main thrust of the proposal is good as it allows for the reforms of the CAP to continue. According to her, it is also "positive that the Commission should have the ambition of tackling the issue of sustainable development" in this sector. Spain announced that it was "launching a "diplomatic offensive" to gather a majority of States against the project. "We totally reject the proposal, both the reduction in subsidies and decoupling", a spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture warned. "This reform goes in the right direction, but discussions remain necessary as to detail", the German Minister of Agriculture Renate Kunsat said in a press release, for whom, they should have gone further. In an interview with the daily Le Soir, Belgian Agriculture Minister Annemie Neyts, said that "the main concerns of farmers are to keep their level of income had to have the time to digest these new measures". "If these conditions are met, Belgium can consider taking pt in this reform", she continued. From 17 January already, the French Agriculture Minister Herve Gaymard upped the stakes by a notch at the "Green week" in Berlin, where he denounced the "problem of the total decoupling: we would be denying that the CAP can regulate market problems; we would be set in stone historic rights between countries and between farmers within countries; we would provoke property speculation by artificially increasing the price of land, which would raise a problem for successions".

• Import of poultry: Italy will draw attention to the urgency of strengthening the provisions of a 2002 regulation on the import of certain poultry products, regulation adopted to slow down the import of salted poultry breasts from Thailand and Brazil (by increasing duties). According to Italy, these provisions need extending to other products than chicken breasts.
• Food safety: Commissioner David Byrne will discuss the fight against BSE: - results of tests; - new rules to combat scrapies; - rules for analysing animal feed to detect meat and bone meal; - amendment to the rules on specified risk materials (cattle tonsils and heads). He will also present two recent proposals on combating foot-and-mouth and on the identification and registration of the ovine species (EUROPE of 19 December 2002, p.8).
• "Newcastle" disease in the United States: the Council should adopt a decision providing for Community precautionary measures against the "Newcastle disease" (virus affecting poultry) in the United States. Provided for are restrictive measures until 1 June 2003 on the import of poultry from the State of California, where outbreaks of this disease were declared in October. The Commission could meanwhile amend its proposal, as it seems that the disease has extended to other States (one case was observed in Nevada on 17 January, and Arizona may be affected). The Council could also adopt a political declaration recalling that the United States must accelerate implementation of the chapter on the regionalisation of the veterinary agreement with the EU.
• Fisheries: the Council will adopt conclusions on two Commission communications linked to the reform of the CFP: fish-farming (EUROPE of 19 September 2002) and integrating environmental aspects in this policy.

Franz Fischler will also present a proposal of 3 December aimed at pooling into a single regulation the provisions on the protection of young fish and strengthening them (notably due to the exhaustion of the stocks of cod and hake in certain zones).

The Commission suggests extending two geographical areas closed to certain kinds of fishing (to protect hake) and to establish rules on the rate of immersion of fixed nets and the presence, on board ships, of a combination of tower nets of different mesh sizes. Ireland will underline the importance of finding a solution to the problem of expiry of the Irish Box since 1 January 2003.