Brussels, 23/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - At their meeting on Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 November in Brussels, the agriculture and fisheries ministers of the EU are to debate the “health check” of the common agricultural policy (CAP), the reform of the wine sector and the new proposal designed to facilitate the imports of cereals. Furthermore, the member states will be consulted one by one by the Portuguese presidency and the European Commission on the more controversial elements of the proposed reform of the common market organisation (CMO) for wine. The objective remains a political agreement in December on this dossier. The subjects related to agriculture and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) will be debated on Monday 26 November, whilst the “fisheries” points, such as the reconstitution planned for stocks of bluefin tuna, will be discussed the next day.
Over lunch on Monday, the ministers and two commissioners, Mariann Fischer Boel (agriculture) and Markos Kyprianou (health), will discuss the highly sensitive dossier of GMOs. On 5 December, the European Commission is to decide whether or not it will authorise the growing of two new types of maize: 1507 from Pioneer and Bt 11 by Syngenta. The question of Amflora genetically modified potatoes also features on the agenda of this meeting of the College of Commissioners, as does the Commission's proposal to oblige Austria to lift its safeguard measures against the genetically modified maize varieties MON 810 (Monsanto) and T 25 (Bayer). The European commissioner for the environment, Stavros Dimas, appears isolated within the Commission in calling for the authorisation requests for the Bt 11 and 1507 maize varieties to be rejected. The member states are also greatly divided on the issue.
International pressure over GMOs
In the meantime, international pressure remains high. The United States, Canada and Argentina have given the European Union until 11 January 2008 to apply, to the letter, the conclusions of the WTO panel on GMOs, which returned its verdict last year. These countries are threatening to impose commercial sanctions on the countries of the EU. It is worth noting that in its verdict last year, the WTO gave the European Community a “reasonable amount of time” correctly to apply its own legislation on GMOs. Their deadline for so doing expired on 21 November. In particular, the EU must ensure that all GMOs which have obtained authorisation to be sold on the Community market can indeed be used. This is the case with the maize MON 810.
Health check. Ms Fischer Boel will present the communication of 20 November on the “health check” of the CAP (EUROPE 9547), before the ministers give their initial reaction to it. The Commission will also present its improved proposed reform of the aid regime to producers of cotton (EUROPE 9539), which is expected to attract criticism from the main interested parties (Greece and Spain).
Cereals. In remedy to a disappointing European harvest and high market prices, the European Commission proposed, on Thursday 22 November, to suspend until the end of the current marketing year (which ends on 30 June 2008) import customs duty subsisting in the cereals sector. The ministers will hold an exchange of views on this proposal, before approving it at their forthcoming meeting on 18 December. Under the proposal, customs duties will come back into force with immediate effect in the case of any market distortion.
Customs duties are currently set at zero for durum wheat, high-quality soft wheat, rye, sorghum and maize. For medium-quality and low-quality soft wheat, duty is €12 /tonne up to a limit of an annual tariff quota of 2.9 million tonnes (over and above these quotas, maximum duty is €95 /t). Lastly, an annual tariff quota of 306,215 tonnes is in place for Bali, with duty of €16 /t (above the quota, the rate is €93 /t).
Alcoholic drinks. The Council is also set to adopt the new regulation on the definition, description, presentation and labelling of alcoholic drinks, further to the inter-institution compromise, which was approved at first reading by the European Parliament on 19 June (EUROPE 9449). The agreement refers to two categories of vodka: vodka produced from potatoes and/or cereals (which will be labelled just “vodka”) and vodka made from other raw materials. For this latter type of vodka, the label must include the indication “made from”, followed by a list of the various ingredients. The other elements of compromise are as follows: - the introduction of exacting quality policies for alcoholic drinks; - the keeping in place of the ban on adding artificial flavouring to spirit drinks; - and the reinforcement of the competencies of the European Parliament.
Wine. The Portuguese presidency and the European Commission will hold separate meetings with the member states to seek to make progress with negotiations on the reform of the wine-making sector, which is hoped to lead to a compromise in December.
These trilateral discussions will focus on the most controversial subjects, which are: - putting an end to the practice of adding sugar to wine and to must aid; - the liberalisation of plantation rights; - the various measures which can be financed under national envelopes; - the transfer of funds from the first pillar (market support) to the second pillar (rural development); - various questions related to the labelling of wine (references to the variety and vintage on the labelling of table wines). In addition, despite progress made at technical level on the vine lifting programme, budgetary concerns remain. The creation of a three-year vine lifting programme, instead of one to run over five years, may indeed cost an extra €152 million.
Lastly, under “any other business”, Greece, Cyprus and Latvia will report back on their concerns in the situation of the market for cattle fodder.
Bluefin tuna and illegal fishing
Bluefin tuna. The Council is expected to reach a political agreement on a proposal aiming to transpose the reconstitution plan for stocks of bluefin tuna agreed in November 2006 by the members of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) into Community law.
Only two elements of the proposal remain a problem: - the obligation on the member states to present a fishing plan every year, listing the entire fleet of vessels more than 24 meters in length fishing for bluefin tuna and specifying the individual quota of each vessel. The member states whose national quota does not exceed 5% of the Community TAC are excused of this obligation, as long as they present another method to ensure the same degree of control over catches; - the provisions providing for a maximum 2% of the Community TAC for catches between 8 kg and 30 kg to be allocated to small-scale coastal fishing for fresh tuna in the eastern Atlantic area.
Norway. The Commission will take stock of the state of progress in discussions on the agreement between the EU and Norway on fishing possibilities for 2008. Consultations between the parties took place from 5 -9 November and further talks are planned from 21-25 November.
Simplification. Joe Borg, European Commissioner for Fisheries, will report back on the initial results of measures taken to simplify the rules of the common fisheries policy (CFP).
Illegal fishing. Mr Borg will present his latest proposals to fight illegal, undeclared and unregulated fishing. The Portuguese presidency will report back to the ministers on the conference held in Lisbon on 29 October on the same subject. (L.C.)