Brussels, 09/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - Austria, which holds the Presidency of the Council of the EU for the first six months of the year, and Finland, which will succeed it from 1st July 2006, want to make the most of these twelve months to reinforce the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that was decided in June 2003. 2006 will see full implementation of the reform in five Member States (France, Spain, the Netherlands, Greece and Finland), which had elected to await 2006 to introduce partial or total decoupling of direct aid (single payment per farm). It is only in the last six months of the year that EU Member States will have to decide on updating of Regulations in the fruit and vegetable and wine sectors. In February the Council will formally adopt the decisions on the reform of the sugar sector.
Protection of the environment, food safety and animal health feature highly in the Austrian Presidency's programme. It hopes to encourage Ministers to make progress on the question of coexistence between organic, conventional and GMO agricultural production. The Council will also work on an EU action plan for forestry (put forward by the Commission in the middle of the year), Commission initiatives on biomass and biofuels, the updating of measures against BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), the new animal welfare strategy, the functioning of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the revision of the Directive on pesticides. Decisions are also expected under the Austrian Presidency on the definition, presentation and labelling of spirit drinks, organic farming, protection of geographical indications (see EUROPE 9012) and promotion of agricultural products.
Here is the Presidency's calendar for the meetings of the Agriculture Council:
23 January: presentation and exchange of views on agricultural aspects of the biomass action plan, presentation of proposals on geographical indications (see EUROPE 9012) and organic farming (see EUROPE 9098), presentation of the animal welfare action plan (see EUROPE 9098), information on the latest developments on avian flu (see EUROPE 9013).
20-21 February: formal adoption of Regulations on the reform of the sugar sector (following the opinion of the Parliament expected in mid-January), the strategic guidelines for rural development 2007-13 and the new Regulation on the market in dried fodder, presentation of the EU strategy for biofuels and exchange of views on the “animal welfare” action plan.
20-21 March: political agreement on geographical indications, policy debate on the updating of the strategy for sustainable development, Commission report on the progress of negotiations on EU-Russian veterinary and phytosanitary agreements.
25 April: policy debate on the definition, description and presentation of spirit drinks, adoption of the decision on the conclusion of an EU-Australian agreement on trade in wine, presentation of proposed amendments to the Community veterinary fund.
22-23 May: policy debate on amending the Regulation on organic production, conclusions on the EU strategy for biofuels, Council conclusions on the problems of the coexistence of GMO, conventional and organic crops (and presentation of a Commission report on the implementation of the 2003 Regulation on GMOs for human and animal foods), political agreement on the revision of the Regulation on BSE and on new welfare standards for chickens kept for meat, decisions on the functioning of EFSA, conclusions on the animal welfare conference held on 30 March in Brussels.
19-20 June: presentation of the EU forestry action plan, political agreement on new rules on organic production, progress report on definition and labelling of spirit drinks, presentation of the proposal on the aid scheme for Community banana producers, adoption of the proposal to simplify the marketing standards of eggs, presentation of the thematic strategy for the sustainable use of pesticides, policy debate on the revision of the 2002 Regulation on animal by-products not intended for human consumption and presentation of the Commission's White Paper “EU Training Strategy for safer food”.
Informal meeting, 28-30 May: an informal meeting of Agriculture Ministers will be held in Krems between 28 and 30 May. The theme of the working meeting will be “the human factor in the rural area”. Ministers will discuss the importance of improving training, counselling and research in rural areas.