Strasbourg, 25/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - Following a request from the EU Council of Ministers and the European Commission, on Tuesday 25 September, the European Parliament agreed to use the emergency procedure on a report seeking temporarily to remove the requirement on farmers to set aside 10% of their land, the aim being to increase European production levels of cereals. Its opinion will be adopted on Wednesday 26 September, to allow EU agriculture ministers to adopt the text quickly thereafter (see EUROPE 9508). On Monday 24 September, the request for urgency was accepted by the agriculture committee at an extraordinary meeting convened in Strasbourg.
Currently 3.8 million hectares of land are affected by EU compulsory set aside. The Commission estimates that, by reducing this to 0%, between 1.6 and 2.9 million hectares could be given to agricultural production once more. Average returns would indicate that some further 10 million tonnes of cereals could be brought onto the market. If farmers were to give a maximum of land over to cereal production, rather than other crops, such as oilseeds, this amount could be as much as 17 million tonnes, according to experts. (lc)