Brussels, 12/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Agriculture Ministers of the Member States of the EU made more progress towards an agreement on 22 November, on improvement of conditions for animals. Discussions in the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Member States of the EU (Coreper) on Wednesday showed that at this stage, there exists a qualified majority of Member States in favour of the Dutch Presidency's compromise text (see EUROPE of 23 October, p.8, for more details). This dossier will go back in front of Coreper on 17 November, after further technical discussions. It is worth noting that the compromise text aims to improve things in certain areas (including the obligation for trucks to be fitted out with global satellite positioning systems, or GPS, by 2009), and to keep current provisions on highly controversial subjects in place until 2011: animal journey time, stocking density, and rest time between journeys. At this point, only Denmark and Belgium clearly oppose the current compromise, because they refuse to allow the examination of sensitive issues to be postponed. Austria maintains its general scrutiny reservation, and the German delegation is said to be considering taking position against the Presidency's text.