Brussels, 18/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - The President of the Council, Georgios Drys, believes that the Agriculture Council has made progress in negotiations on reform of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP), which focussed on milk and dairy products, cereals, rice and rural development on Monday in Brussels. But, as the Presidency pointed out, the Agriculture Ministers have not yet examined in detail what will doubtless be the sticking point of reform, the decoupling of production aid, which will feature on the agenda of the Council on 7 April. The debate has shown that most Member States are in favour of keeping milk quotas until 2015 (although positions differ on the additional measures to be taken), and of reforms in the rice and rye sectors (although producing countries have interests to defend), but do not wish to see any reduction in cereal prices. Having listened to the contributions, Commissioner Franz Fischler said that he was disposed to make concessions on rural development. He would be prepared to agree to keep the regulation on promotion of and information on agricultural products until at least 2006 (which the Commission wanted to abandon from 2004), and the obligatory application of the Council for agriculture from 2007 only. Mr Drys told the Press on Monday evening that work on examining the proposals "had made progress" and that "we will be able to make decisions", although "the main subject of the reform is the decoupling of production aid". The technical examination of this plank of the reform will be concluded shortly in the Special Agriculture Committee (SAC), explained Mr Drys, before pointing out that "for the moment, we cannot talk in terms of agreement or convergence of views, because we are working on the principle of examining all the proposals as a global package". "We cannot agree on all aspects of the proposals unless we have global agreement", he added.
Here is a summary of the results of the Council debate.
- Milk: Sweden, the United Kingdom and Denmark pleaded in favour of a wide-ranging reform of the sector (scrapping quotas and price reductions). Italy asked for quotas to be axed in 2008, and supported the price reductions put forward by the Commission, and the anticipated linear increase of milk quotas in 2004/2005 (initially planned for 2007/2008). The other Member States asked for quotas to stay in place until 2015, and most found the proposed additional measures unjustified or premature (increase of quotas and price reductions). Several Member States (Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Luxembourg and Sweden, but not Portugal and Finland) said they were open to an asymmetric price reduction (between butter and skimmed milk powder), as suggested by the Commission.
- Cereals: France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Finland, Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Austria were opposed to the reduction by 5% of the intervention price and the scrapping of monthly increases in the cereals sector. Denmark, the United Kingdom and Sweden supported this proposal, and Greece was reasonably open on cereals (with the exception of durum wheat). On durum wheat, Italy especially, but also Greece and France contested the measures proposed, emphasising the essential nature of the sector in struggling rural areas. As to rye, Germany, Netherlands and Ireland requested that reform be implemented gradually to allow farmers to adapt, and Finland thought that getting rid of the intervention price would have serious repercussions on the market. Austria, United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark upheld the need to reform the regime for rye.
- Rice: Italy felt that additional reduction of aid was unjustifiable. Minister Giovanni Alemanno said that he was prepared to accept setting the support price at 150 euro/tonne, but on the condition that compensation to producers be 100% (to take account of the effects of the "Everything but Arms" initiative) and that the same be done for rice as has already been done for cereals ("deconsolidation" of the ceiling price at the WTO). Italy also asked for a fund to be set up to promote European rice-growing. The producing countries (Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece) are generally opposed to the introduction of a dual system combining private storage and the so-called "safety net" intervention). Spain asked for compensation for the drop in prices to be set at 200 euro per tonne (as against 176 euro/tonne proposed by the Commission) and for producers who exceed the tolerated production volume not to be penalised.
- Rural Development: Italy (especially as regards quality), France, Finland and the Netherlands thanked the Commission for its intention to take account of their comments on certain aspects of this plank, and expressed the view that the proposals are along the right lines. Several Member States asked for greater flexibility in setting the co-financing rate for the transfer (from the first pillar, market expenses, to the second, rural development policy) of funds freed up by modulation of aid. The United Kingdom recommended transferring more from the first pillar to the second, and asked for "radical" simplification and greater flexibility in existing measures. Portugal said that modulation of aid was a "fundamental" principle.