Brussels, 19/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - EU agriculture and fisheries ministers will be meeting in Luxembourg on Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 October to continue their talks on reform of the wine-making industry and the current crisis facing the pigmeat industry. EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou will unveil the EU's animal health strategy. Fisheries will be discussed on Tuesday 23 October, when the Council will try to reach agreement on fishing quotas and total allowable catches (TACs) in the Baltic Sea.
Changes to the wine industry. In their third debate of the issue following the unveiling of recent draft legislation, the minsters will discuss the following areas of the reform plans: 1) the grubbing-up of 200,000 hectares (ha) over five years. Ministers may discuss an idea put forward by the European Parliament rapporteur of restricting the grubbing-up to three years rather than five. Debate at the expert level showed that various countries (like Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom) backed such a deal as useful for rebalancing the market in their view, whereas others (like France, Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Hungary) agreed on the useful nature of grubbing-up but only if it could be restricted to certain sensitive areas. France is calling for temporary grubbing-up. A third group of countries, including Italy, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, is extremely dubious about the effectiveness of the grubbing-up system to deal with the overproduction problem; 2) the transfer of monies from the first pillar (direct aid and market aid) to the second pillar (rural development) of the common agricultural policy (CAP). Most member states oppose the transfer of what they see as too great a volume of funding; 3) national funding. Some wine producing countries (Italy, Luxembourg, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria) are criticising the criteria decided upon by the European Commission for allocation of budget resources (25% for surface area, 25% for production and 50% for expenditure) but are not challenging the principle of national funding. The problem is that most wine producing countries feel that the range of possible measures eligible for funding in the initial draft is too limited (support for green harvesting, support for restructuring and conversion of vineyards and insurance against natural disasters). France in particular is calling for the continuation of a distillation system to cover future economic crises.
It is highly likely that the member states will discuss the controversial issue of chaptalisation and may agree to settle the matter by additional aid to national budget amounts. 20 or so member states, led by Germany and Austria, oppose the European Commission's idea of scrapping chaptalisation, whereby sugar is added to wine to enrich it (increasing the alcohol content). Only Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Malta are calling for sugar to be replaced by grape must. They say sugar is an artificial way of increasing yield and is used because sugar is easier and cheaper to find than grape must and the practice is only driven by financial concerns. The Commission shares this view but is also concerned about the bad influence on public health of continually raising the alcohol content of wine by adding sugar. The Commission argues that in some countries in the north (like Germany and Austria), high quality wines are produced without any sugar being added.
Funding the CAP. On 15 October 2007, the special agriculture committee (SCA) noted that a qualified majority of its members agreed with the proposal to increase transparency of information on the beneficiaries of farm aid. In its opinion published on 11 October, the European Parliament backed the Commission's approach that it will be the member states which should be responsible for publishing information about the beneficiaries of EU aid.
Animal transport and pigmeat. Sweden will brief the other member states on violations of EU legislation on animal welfare during transport. On Poland's request, the current crisis in the pigmeat industry will be discussed.
Drought. Bulgaria and Romania are calling for the EU to give the go-ahead for national aid (€102m and €400m respectively) to farmers hit by drought in the two countries. The Commission will soon be giving its decision on aid in Bulgaria so this country will not need to ask the Council to decide on the matter through a unanimous vote. However, Romania's request may be subject to a vote by the Council because the Commission is still awaiting information on how the aid would be granted.
Baltic Sea fishing quotas. The EU member states' fisheries ministers will try to reach political agreement on fishing quotas for 2008 in the Baltic Sea. In previous years, the European Commission's proposals have been very strict (see EUROPE 9493) and debate will be adversely coloured by Poland's refusal to punish fishermen for continuing to fish for cod when they have used up their quotas. The Polish government announced on 3 October that it would be going to the European Court of Justice to request annulment of the regulation banning Polish ships from fishing for cod in the Baltic Sea until the start of next year (see EUROPE 9516).
The debates at EU expert and diplomat level revealed a degree of irritation from the other member states about Polish fishermen fishing totally illegally. The European Commission representative would not budge on the cod quota reductions in 2008 (down 33% in the Western Baltic and 23% in the Eastern Baltic), and the salmon quota reductions (down 15%), attempting to ease the current tension by pointing out that Poland is not the only country involved in illegal fishing. Germany is reported to be fiercely opposed to the cod quota reductions recommended by the Commission for 2008 and is reported to be calling for the 2007 TAC for herring in the 22-24 zone to be used in 2008 (the Commission wants a 20% cut), along with the 2007 TAC for sprat (down 5% according to the Commission) and the 2007 TAC for plaice (down 15% according to the Commission). Denmark is reported to support the 33% cut in TAC for cod in the Western Baltic but only wants a 15% reduction in the cod TAC for the Eastern Baltic. Sweden is reported to be supporting the proposal for cod but not the proposals for various herring stocks (particularly the 30-31 subdivisions) which it feels go too far. Estonia says the proposal is a good basis for a compromise, while Lithuania seems quite close to the hard line taken by Germany. Poland took note of the European Commission's reasonable proposals for herring, plaice and sprat and pointed out that it was challenging the European Commission's statistics on TACs for cod. Poland also wants to negotiate the TACs for salmon and certain herring stocks.
The other area of debate was the reduction in authorised days at sea. The highly complex system put forward by the Commission is not being supported (Sweden says it is too weak and other countries say it goes too far). Denmark has come up with an alternative system which Poland, at least, seems to be happy with.
Fisheries agreement with Norway. As usual, the European Commission is sounding out the member states before entering negotiations with Norway on the EU-Norway fishing agreement. The talks between the EU and Norway on the annual bilateral fisheries agreement will be held on 5-9 and 21-25 November 2007. The Council is being asked to give guidelines on the following: the level of TACs for species managed in common (cod, haddock, herring, plaice, coley, blue whiting and mackerel); captures of blue whiting; herring fishing in the Atlantic; fishing quotas for four fish species which are not yet managed in common (monkfish, horse mackerel (scad), Norway pout and sand eel); stock recovery plans for certain species in the North Sea; and fish stocks in fishing zones Skagerrak and Kattegat. Long-term recovery plans are in place for cod, haddock, herring and coley and a recovery plan for plaice is being negotiated.
Red tuna. The Spanish delegation will brief ministers on its concerns following the early closure of red tuna fishing decided upon by the Commission. Spain has not yet exhausted its red tuna quota. (L.C.)