Voorbereidingen Landbouw- en Visserijraad, mei 2007 (en)

The Agriculture & Fisheries Council will meet in Brussels on Monday 7 (starting at 11 a.m.) and Tuesday 8 May, under the Presidency of Mr Horst Seehofer, Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of Germany.

Commissioners Mariann Fischer Boel i, Markos Kyprianou i and Joe Borg i will attend the Council meeting for their respective points.

The Council will start with fisheries points on Monday morning before turning to the agriculture points which will be concluded on Monday afternoon. In the late afternoon and on Tuesday, the Council will deal with the food safety and animal health issues.

The points on the agenda are:

Fisheries

Recovery of the stock of European eel

Following a lengthy debate in April, Council will again discuss the Commission's proposal ( IP/05/1233 ) on establishing measures for the recovery of the highly-depleted European eel stock, with a view to reaching political agreement. Under this proposal, first tabled in October 2005, the Member States would set up national plans to ensure the escape of 40% of the quantity of adult eels which would migrate out of the rivers on their territories in the absence of the impacts of fishing and of other human activities. Member States would be responsible for devising their own management plans, which would be subject to review by the Commission's Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee on Fisheries (STECF) before approval by the Commission.

The discussion in April made it possible to reach agreement on practically all the outstanding issues. This includes timing for the presentation of the management plans (now deferred until 31 December 2008 to allow adequate time for preparation and drafting), and whether or not the Black Sea should fall within the scope of the regulation (to be resolved by the end of 2007 through dialogue between the Commission and the Member States on the basis of new scientific advice from the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee on Fisheries (STECF)). As a result, the only issue which still remains to be settled concerns the measures to promote the use of juvenile (glass) eel for restocking European river systems. In the final compromise presented in April, the Commission and the Presidency proposed that these measures be phased in gradually over a period of four years, and that the size of eels concerned be raised to 25cm.

The current state of the European eel stock is extremely alarming, as recent recruitment levels (quantities of young fish joining the stock every year) have been as low as 1% of historic levels. The Commission trusts this final issue can now be resolved by Council, so that work can begin on putting appropriate measures in place before the decline of the stock becomes irreparable.

Recovery plan for bluefin tuna

Proposal for a Council Regulation amending Council Regulation (EC) No 41/2007 as concerns the recovery plan for bluefin tuna recommended by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas

The Council will discuss the Commission's proposal (see IP/07/257 and MEMO/07/87 ) to amend the Regulation on fishing possibilities for 2007 so as to include the measures contained in the multi-annual recovery plan for bluefin tuna recommended by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), last November, with a view to reaching political agreement. These measures are based on the recommendations of scientists to ensure the recovery of the overfished east-Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna stock. The provisions of the plan include major extensions in closed seasons for all types of vessels, as well as an increase in the minimum landing size from 10kg to 30kg. Poor application of the rules is seen as the main contributor to overfishing of this stock, and the recovery plan therefore establishes a joint international inspection scheme, along with a comprehensive control system covering all stages of the fishery, from capture to market. A separate proposal has been tabled by the Commission for the long-term transposition of the recovery plan into EU law.

The proposed amendment also sets quotas for the Member States, following the decision by ICCAT at a meeting in Tokyo in January to allocate an overall quota of 16 779.55 tonnes to the EU for this stock. A provisional EU quota of 50% of the 2006 quota was set by Council in December. It is therefore vital that the Regulation be amended, both to ensure that the provisions of the recovery plan enter into force, and to enable fishing to continue after the provisional quota set last December has been caught.

The purpose of this proposal is to ensure that European operators fully implement the measures agreed at the international level, so that bluefin tuna can benefit from the protection it urgently needs..

Agriculture

Cross-compliance system

On 29 March, the European Commission proposed a raft of measures to improve and simplify the system of Cross Compliance, which formed a key element of the 2003 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. The changes aim, among other things, to improve information, introduce a certain level of tolerance in minor cases of non-compliance, harmonise control rates and introduce advance notice of certain on-farm checks. The proposal does not water down the concept of Cross Compliance, but takes into account experience gained so far to make the system work better for the benefit of farmers and administrations. It forms the latest stage in the Commission's ongoing efforts to simplify the CAP.

Cross Compliance means that farmers have to respect a set of standards to avoid cuts in payments from the European Union. These cover protection of the environment, public, animal and plant health, animal welfare and the maintenance of the land in good agricultural and environmental condition. Cross Compliance has the dual aims of helping to make farming more sustainable and making the CAP more compatible with the expectations of consumers and taxpayers.

The report, press release and further information on cross-compliance are available on the internet at: http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/simplification/crosscom/index_en.htm

The Council will have a policy debate on the Commission proposal on the basis of a Presidency questionnaire.

Cereals

The Presidency will give a state of play of the discussions at Council level on the Commission proposals on maize intervention and the general rules for the financing of intervention.

Maize intervention

On 15 December 2006, the European Commission proposed to abolish the system of public intervention purchases for maize from the 2007/2008 marketing year (see IP/06/1818 and COM(2006) 755). At the end of the 2005/2006 marketing season, EU maize intervention stocks had spiralled to 5.6 million tonnes, or 40 percent of total intervention stocks. Without changes to the current system, these stocks, which are bought and stored at public expense, are forecast to rise to as much as 15.6 million tonnes by 2013. Possible outlets for soaring stocks of maize are limited, and maize is unsuitable for long-term storage. Regions that historically exported maize onto the world market are now offering a large part of their harvest directly for intervention. Ending intervention for maize would allow the EU cereals market to achieve a new balance and see intervention regain its original purpose as a safety net.

General rules for financing of interventions

On 17 January, the European Commission proposed specific measures to alleviate the financial burden on Member States for advancing the cost of public intervention (see COM(2007) 12). The proposal is an amendment to the Regulation laying down general rules for the financing of interventions by the EAGGF (European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund).

According to this Regulation, Member States have to advance the cost of intervention purchases and storage, before it is reimbursed by the EU budget. The interest rate to cover the Member States costs of mobilisation of funds to finance intervention is reimbursed by the EU budget up to a certain level.

Following the recent increases in interest rates, certain Member States, which already have to bear significant financial charges due to the large quantities of cereals offered into and stored in intervention, asked the Commission to ease the financial burden of this mobilisation of funds for a limited period of time.

Therefore the Commission proposed a temporary relief mechanism when interest rates are exceptionally high.

Sugar restructuring

On Monday morning, the Commission will adopt two proposals and a Communication to adapt the sugar restructuring scheme to make it more effective and thus reduce European Union sugar production to sustainable levels. The restructuring scheme was a key element of the 2006 reform of the Common Market Organisation for sugar, offering producers who would be uncompetitive at the new lower price a financial incentive to leave the sector. Unfortunately, much less quota has been renounced during the first two years of the scheme than anticipated and changes therefore have to be made to make it more attractive. The Commission believes that the changes proposed should allow the renunciation of about 3.8 million tonnes of sugar quota in addition to the 2.2 million tonnes given up so far.

Details on the proposal will be available in a press release that will be issued on Monday, after the adoption of the proposal by the Commission. More information on the sugar reform are available on the internet at:

http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/capreform/sugar/index_en.htm

Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel will present the proposals and Communication to the Ministers followed by a first exchange of views.

AOB

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  WTO - Doha Development Agenda Negotiations: State of play.

Food safety and animal health

Welfare of broilers

Ministers will seek to reach political agreement on the Commission's proposal (see IP/05/637 ) for a Directive laying down minimum rules for the protection of chickens kept for meat production, based on a new compromise text from the Presidency.

The Commission's proposal sets out a basic maximum stocking density of 30 kg live animals per square metre as well as a number of minimum conditions to ensure animal welfare, although farms that meet enhanced welfare conditions will be allowed to stock up to 38 kg/m2.

Animal welfare labelling

Ministers are expected to adopt conclusions on animal welfare labelling as the follow up on the conference on animal welfare labelling, organised jointly by the Presidency, the Commission and the Economic and Social Committee on 28 March 2007. Animal welfare labelling is an issue that the Commission is committed to examine in order to help European producers to capitalise on the high welfare requirements under EU legislation and to enable consumers to make an informed choice.

Better regulation in the plant varieties and seeds sectors

The initiative "Better regulation in the plant varieties and seed sector" was launched under the UK Presidency in autumn 2005. As a first step, an external evaluation was decided, addressing the request of the Presidency. The evaluation will cover the entire acquis on the marketing of seeds and propagating material, including the system of Community Plant Variety Rights. The primary aim of the evaluation is the overall assessment of the above acquis and its implementation in the Community, while the secondary aim would be to explore the possibilities for simplification and the reduction of administrative burden on the public authorities and the private sector stakeholders alike. The Commission is expected to have this evaluation completed in mid 2008, and until then to give to the Council regular feedback on the progress.

AOB

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  Avian influenza: The Commission will provide a written update with developments on Avian Influenza in the EU and third countries.
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  Veterinary Negotiations between EC and the Russian Federation: Commissioner Kyprianou will provide an update on the latest