Brussels, 22/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - EU agriculture ministers began a long negotiation on Tuesday evening in Brussels to be continued on Wednesday on reform of the common market organisation (CMO) for sugar. The British Presidency and the European Commission trust the Council will reach an agreement on Wednesday evening or during Thursday morning. The first proposal for a compromise from the British Presidency, drafted in agreement with the Commission, was considered insufficient by several delegations. Italy and Spain were among the most hostile while a group of countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Baltic States, Finland, Hungary and Portugal) called for further efforts to be made on the level of prices and compensation for farmers. France and other countries like Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark, supported the text.
The first Presidency compromise presented on Tuesday mainly provides for: - the reduction of 39% on sugar prices to be spread out over four years instead of two (-20% in 2006/07, -27.5% in 2007/08, -35% in 2008/09 and -39% from 2009/10); - maintaining for four years (from 2006 to 2009) of the intervention price for sugar that the Commission wished to do away with from July 2006. The price proposed amounts to 75% of the sugar reference price and cannot exceed a volume of 400,000 tonnes per year for white refined sugar. Also, the compromise provides for measures allowing for controls to be made of sugar imports into Europe from developing countries (safeguard clause and strengthened rules of origin) and greater flexibility for implementation of restructuring funds (partial closure of factories eligible for subsidies and support to sugar beet producers).
ACP countries (African, Caribbean and Pacific), which benefit from preferential access to the European market and which fear they may be especially affected by the reform, see their claims partially taken into account, and are granted a two year delay with an unchanged purchase price (see other article on the ACP/EU Assembly in Edinburgh.
Margaret Beckett, British Minister for the environment, food and rural issues, said: “We have done our best to take account of the concerns expressed by Member States”. Agriculture Minister Mariann Fischer Boel said the essential elements for a “balanced” agreement had been met in the compromise.