Brussels, 24/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - EU27 agriculture ministers will meet in Brussels on Wednesday 26 September, to discuss the reform of the wine-making sector and try to reach agreement on the relaunch of the restructuring plan for the sugar industry. Finally, the Agriculture Council is set to lend its support to the proposal allowing farmers to produce a little more in 2008, in order to remedy the current shortfall of certain raw materials, such as cereals.
Sugar. The Portuguese presidency hopes to see a political agreement on the proposed relaunch of the restructuring regime in the sugar sector (see EUROPE 9421 for the proposal). In recent discussions between experts, only a few member states (including Finland and Latvia) have indicated that they would not agree to this plan. Other countries, such as Italy and Spain, appeared prepared to accept the compromise on the table. For its part, the European Parliament will return its opinion on the eve of the meeting of the Council, this Tuesday 25 September.
Wine. After a more general initial debate at the end of July, the ministers will start to go into details on the subject of reform, with a guideline debate on two controversial topics: the removal of planting rights as of 2014 (liberalisation of the sector) and the ban on chaptalisation (adding sugar to wine). On the former issue, France, Italy, Austria, Germany and Luxembourg are expected to highlight all the disadvantages which they believe must result from deregulation of this kind (delocalisation, market imbalance, and even a situation of over-production), and on the latter, almost all of the countries hope to keep the chaptalisation method in place (only Spain, Italy and Malta would like to see the end of this procedure). The Portuguese presidency will seek possible compromise solutions on both issues, such as phasing in the liberalisation of planting rights.
Set-aside. Following a favourable opinion of the European Parliament, the ministers are set to agree on the regulation which will allow the obligatory rate of land to be set aside to be fixed at zero in 2008 (EUROPE 9501).
GMO. The Council is expected to take position on the placing on the market of three genetically modified types of maize (all destined for human and animal consumption): 59122 (Pioneer Overseas Corporation), 1507xNK603 (Pioneer Overseas Corporation and Dow AgroSciences Europe) and NK603xMON810 (Monsanto). At technical level, the member states have failed to reach a majority decision for or against these products.
Lastly, the ministers will take stock of negotiations under way at the WTO, various animal diseases and, in particular, the situation on the cereals and milk markets. (lc)