Brussels, 01/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - The EU Member States, which met on Monday within the Special Agriculture Committee (SAC), reached an agreement on the establishment of Community measures to regulate the ethyl alcohol market, and on the framework procedure for national aid in this sector (reference to Articles 87, 88 and 89 of the Treaty). The Greek Presidency's compromise, supported by the Commission, nonetheless provides for a derogation in favour of Germany that may continue to help its small distilleries until the year 2010. Furthermore, the amount of aid will not exceed the total amount of aid paid in 2002. The agreement, which is opposed by Italy alone, is to be made official next Tuesday during the Agriculture Council. Before this, however, Commissioner Franz Fischler must obtain the endorsement of his peers, on Wednesday, to accept this compromise (which is not in line with the initial proposal especially regarding the framework of national aid), and Germany has still to formally sign up to it, at the level of Agriculture and Finance Ministers.
Work on this dossier had been abandoned last year because it was impossible to settle the problem of the German monopoly on alcohol ("Branntweinmonopol") (See EUROPE of 29 June, 2002). It resumed recently at the level of the SAC, due above all to the upcoming accession by new Member States into the EU (since the beginning, the Commission has expressed the hope that a strong political message would be sent to Poland, which largely subsidies producers in this sector).
Furthermore, in accordance with the provisions of "pre-enlargement procedure" (adopted in January this year by the Council), the delegations of the future new Member States asked to be consulted in writing on this subject. Their response is expected by Friday. We recall that the candidate countries can, in theory, then call for legislative proposals that they are particularly keen on, and the convening of an "interim committee" opening up formal consultations with the current Member States. If, after this consultation, major difficulties were to continue, then the proposal in question could be taken to the ministerial level at the request of candidate countries. This procedure has never been opened in the agricultural sector.