Brussels, 13/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - The agriculture and fisheries ministers of EU member states are to meet on Monday 16 and Tuesday 17 April in Luxembourg to discuss reform proposals for the fruit and vegetable sector, and to seek to reach an agreement on measures for the recovery of eel stocks. The German EU Council presidency hopes to conclude discussions on the items on the agenda pertaining to agriculture and fisheries by Monday evening. The next day, ministers will hold informal discussions on illegal fishing and the EU's future maritime policy, during a working lunch attended by Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg.
Fruit and vegetables. After a first, more general exchange of views on 29 January this year (EUROPE 9354), the Agriculture Council will hold a policy debate on two of the most controversial aspects of the proposal relating to reform of the fresh and processed fruit and vegetables sector: - 1) Single farm payments: The Commission suggests bringing in total decoupling of processing aid. During the work of the Special Agriculture Committee (SAC) on 26 March, many countries (Spain, Italy, France, Portugal, Greece, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Lithuania and Cyprus) recommended varying lengths of transitional period before reaching total decoupling, with partial decoupling for some products especially tomatoes, citrus fruits and prunes. The European Commission was willing to accept transitional solutions on condition that they lead, in time, to total decoupling and that they are compatible with the rules of the WTO. In the opposite camp, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, the three Scandinavian countries, Ireland, Austria (albeit willing to accept solutions recommended by producer countries), Latvia, Estonia and Slovenia support the immediate introduction without exemptions of the single farm payment scheme in the fruit and vegetable sector; - Crisis management: Discussions at expert level, on 20 March in particular, revealed broad support for crisis management measures in this sector. The principle of such actions was only criticised by a small number of countries including Denmark. Several countries (France, Italy, Greece and Spain in particular) are opposed to such measures being financed, as the Commission would like, from the budgets of operational programmes. These member states stress how inconsistent it is to set aside part of the budget of these programmes (33% at most) for measures that are, in essence, unpredictable. Also, as some countries protest, producers not affiliated to professional organisations would not be able to benefit from these schemes. Others, however, consider that crisis management measures should be part of operational programmes.
Cross-compliance. The Commission will present its report dated 29 March which takes stock of the application of the system of cross compliance in EU member states.
Animal welfare. Under “miscellaneous”, Denmark hopes to encourage European agricultural and transport organisations to rewrite the codes of best practice on animal welfare. Denmark mentions in particular the certification of companies that carry out animal transport. Its intervention on this issue comes at a time when border controls have revealed cases of piglets being transported in atrocious conditions … by Danish companies. The animals are reported to have travelled 127 hours in one go. Denmark is a fervent defender of restricting the transport time for livestock to 8 hours. We recall that EU agricultural ministers had, in December 2004, adopted a new regulation on improving the conditions of transport of livestock intended for slaughter. The text leaves the most controversial issues such as maximum travelling time and the loading density of animals in vehicles to one side until 2011 (EUROPE 8861).
Eels. European fisheries ministers hope to reach a political agreement on Monday evening concerning the recovery of eel stocks. Negotiations may prove difficult as member states differ over many subjects: - the compromise text compels member states to present, for each catchment area, a management plan aimed at allowing at least 40% of adult European eel to escape to the sea (where they reproduce). Several member states (in the North and South of Europe) express reservation on this percentage which is difficult to calculate; - the Commission suggests, at the request of the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, that the Black Sea should be included in the scope of the regulation (but other countries such as Romania and Austria object to this as they say they would have to provide management plans when they do not even catch eels); - at the request of several countries (the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden), the draft compromise would make it an obligation for countries that fish glass eel (essentially France and Spain) to reserve 75% of their catch for restocking the European catchment basins.
However, France and Spain oppose this, because they fear devastating consequences for their glass eel sector, and particularly a steep drop in prices on the European market; - Lastly, several member states called for a year's extension on the transmission date (to 31 December 2008, as opposed to a year earlier in the proposal) and the implementation (from 1 July 2009, compared to July 2008 in the draft text) for their eel stock management plans.
Baltic Sea cod. The Council will hold a debate on the cod reconstitution stocks plan for the Baltic Sea (EUROPE 9325). It is worth noting that the Commission has given the countries in question up until 30 June 2007 to adopt these measures, otherwise the cod quotas will be reduced over the year.
Labelling of fisheries products. The ministers will take position on the Commission's ideas on setting in place community rules for the ecological labelling of fishery products (EUROPE 8979 on the communication of the Commission). Lastly, Mr Borg will inform the ministers of progress made in the simplification of the rules of the common fisheries policy (CFP). (lc)