Brussels, 21/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - The agriculture and fisheries ministers of the Member States of the EU, who are to meet in Luxembourg on Monday 24 and Tuesday 25 October, will continue their talks on the reform of the sugar sector, will discuss the state of play with negotiations at the WTO on the liberalisation of trade and try to reach political agreement on the reconstitution of stocks of hake and lobster in Spanish and Portuguese waters. Monday will be given over to "fisheries" subjects and those under the competency of the Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Markos Kyprianou, i.e. GMO and bird flu, with a working lunch on changes to be made to the work of the Council to facilitate decisions taken on fisheries matters. Furthermore, the Council is set to reach political agreement on the implementation of a voluntary authorisation regime for imports of wood into the EU ("FLEGT"). On Tuesday, the ministers will discuss the reform of the sugar sector. France is calling for the development of negotiations at the WTO to be discussed in an exchange of views within the Council, whereas at this stage, the UK Presidency has planned only to discuss the dossier during the working lunch (and thus informally only). Here is an overview of the main points on the Council's agenda:
GMO: Once again, the ministers will air their differences of opinion on the sales of two types of genetically modified maize (MON 863 and GA 21), which are produced by Monsanto, and on a proposal to lift the Greek embargo on seeds of maize hybrid MON 810. The Commission will take responsibility for adopting these texts, if there is no qualified majority at the Council for against these proposals.
The aim of the first proposal is not to authorise Greece to ban the sales of genetically modified hybrid maize seeds of the line MON (of Monsanto) 810 which is included in the joint catalogue of agricultural vegetable species. In July, the Standing Committee on Seeds and Propagating Material was unable to return an opinion (no qualified majority either for or against the proposal). This scenario repeated itself at the meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Member States to the EU (Coreper): 9 Member States (United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Spain, Finland, Estonia, Belgium, Sweden, Netherlands and Lithuania) voted in favour of the proposal to lift the ban decided upon by Greece (France and Portugal also tend towards this view, but have not yet taken stance definitively, and Denmark is in a similar position, as it is waiting for its Parliament to give the green light). Nine took position against (Malta, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Austria and Poland) and four delegations abstained (Germany, Ireland, Slovenia and Slovakia).
At the meeting of Coreper on 10 October, 11 Member States (Estonia, Netherlands, Ireland, Poland, Belgium, Sweden, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Finland and United Kingdom) voted in favour of the sales of foodstuffs and ingredients from the genetically modified maize line MON 863, 11 voted against (Malta, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Latvia, Italy, Greece, Lithuania, Cyprus, Slovenia, Portugal and Austria) and two abstained (Hungary and Spain). Denmark had a Parliamentary reservation.
On the sales of foodstuffs and ingredients produced using the genetically modified maize line (from Monsanto), 8 Member States took position in favour of the proposal (Estonia, Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Sweden, Czech Republic, Finland and United Kingdom), 11 took position against (Malta, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Latvia, Greece, Lithuania, Cyprus, Poland, France, Portugal and Austria) and four abstained (Hungary, Spain, Slovenia and Germany), during the Coreper meeting. Italy has not yet reached a definitive position, and Denmark tabled Parliamentary reservation.
Hake and lobster: the ministers will attempt to reach political agreement on a modified proposal for plans to reconstitute southern hake and lobster stocks in the Cantabrian Sea and in the western Iberian peninsula (EUROPE 9045). Discussions were held on this dossier at the meeting of Coreper on 14 October, but these talks proved unable to resolve the main problem at this stage blocking the political agreement of the Council with the two Member States in question, Spain and Portugal. Spain is calling for a ban on lobster fishing in the zone (known as "zone three", which is off Galicia) to be applied from the beginning of June at the end of August (instead of the whole year, as provided for by the compromise text). It is during these three months the 65% of lobster catches taken place, according to the Spanish delegation. Portugal is opposed to the closing of fishing in another zone ("zone four") on its western coasts and, in exchange for the removal of these restrictions, would agree to close another zone to the south of the country.
EU/Norway agreement: The Commission will hear the views of the Member States on ways of successfully concluding the annual negotiations between the EU and Norway on the annual task of setting levels for jointly managed total allowable catches (TAC) in the North Sea and the exchange of quotas between the two parties. The first round of bilateral negotiations will be held on 8 November.
Over lunch, the ministers will discuss changes to be made to the working methods of the Council. The principal idea put forward by the Commissioner for Fisheries, Joe Borg, would be to delay the start of the annual fishing campaign by three months (from the first of April to the end of March instead of 1 January to 31 December), in order to increase the duration of consultations with the Member States accordingly. Scientific opinions on fish stocks are published in October, which does not leave much time for consultations to be held before December's marathon. Under any other business, Mr Borg will take stock of the state of play with the creation of the regional consultative councils (RCC). Currently, three of the seven RCCs are operational (North Sea, deep Sea stocks, northern western waters), with the one for the Baltic Sea due to be operational early in 2006 and two others to follow (Southern western waters and high Sea stocks). The RCC on fishing in the Mediterranean will be the last to go live.
Sugar: The Council's debate will focus mainly on the restructuring plan laid down by the Commission in its legislative proposal on reform of the common market organisation for sugar. Progress at expert level has been made on this aspect of the dossier, as the Commission has agreed to allow a proportion of this fund to be paid to sugar beet producers, not solely to factories. According to the Commission, the principal objective of the restructuring is to encourage producers to reduce their quotas by between five and six million tonnes in all.
Under any other business, France will raise the question of competition between the traditional shallot obtained by vegetative multiplication (bulbs) and those grown from seed. The European Court of Justice is to return an opinion requested by the French Council of State by the end of the year, after the case was brought by Dutch seed companies calling for French legislation preserving the denomination "shallot" solely for products obtained by vegetative multiplication to be repealed (case C-147/04, preliminary question by the French Council of State). In conclusion is returned on 24 May, the Advocate General of the Court said that the principle of free movement of goods opposed any such national regulation.