Brussels, 19/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - Hungarian, Austrian and Slovenian agriculture ministers, supported by their French, Italian, Polish, Czech and Slovenian counterparts, criticised the European Commission's proposal, on the one hand, strengthen certain quality conditions of cereal batches intended for intervention takeover and, on the other, to revise the methods of analysis to determine the quality of the products. The Commission plans to review some quality conditions of cereal batches intended for intervention takeover. For maize, it suggests significantly strengthening requirements on moisture content, broken and overheated grains and wants to introduce a minimum specific weight requirement. Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic said that the amendments proposed would have very widespread consequences on the internal cereals market, because they exclude “the vast majority of maize produced in the Central European region from the intervention” and imply “extra costs on the producers”. They said that the introduction of these amendments exceeded Commission competence and demanded a Council decision as part of the review of the common organisation of the market (COM) in the cereals sector. They called on the Commission to modify its proposal as a consequence, in order to respond to the needs of those traditional maize producing Member States and to ensure the future and the proper working of the maize market. Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel pointed out that, before 2004, the EU was a net importer of maize. The situation had changed dramatically since the accession of the new Member States in May 2004 and, over the last two marketing years, maize stocks on the European market continue to rise. Current stocks exceed 5 million tonnes. She stressed the need urgently to strengthen quality criteria for maize for intervention. She agreed, however, to “adjust the proposals if need be” to take account, as far as possible, of the problems to maize varieties that could be caused in some regions. She promised to discuss the issue with the Member States facing these problems.