Voorbereiding Raad landbouw/visserij september 2007

The Agriculture & Fisheries Council will meet in Brussels on Wednesday 26 (starting at 11 a.m.) and Thursday morning 27 September (if necessary), under the Presidency of Mr Jaime Silva, Minister for Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries.

Council will start with Food Safety and Animal Health issues on Wednesday morning followed by Agriculture items. No Fisheries points are on the agenda.

The points on the agenda are:

Food Safety and Animal Health

Placing on the market of GM products

The Council is to consider three Commission proposals to authorise the placing on the market of products containing, consisting of, or produced from genetically modified maize 59122 (Herculex), 1507xNK603 and NK603xMON810. These three proposals for authorisation of genetically modified maize cover all uses except cultivation.

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  On 2 April 2007, the European Food Safety Authority gave a favourable opinion in accordance with Articles 6 and 18 of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 and concluded that it is unlikely that the placing on the market of the products containing, consisting of, or produced from 59122 maize as described in the application will have adverse effects on human or animal health or the environment.
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  On 12 May 2006, the European Food Safety Authority gave a favourable opinion in accordance with Articles 6 and 18 of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 and concluded that it is unlikely that the placing on the market of the products containing, consisting of, or produced from 1507xNK603 maize as described in the application will have adverse effects on human or animal health or the environment. Genetically modified 1507 maize and MON603 maize are already authorized in EU.
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  On 31 March 2006, the European Food Safety Authority gave a favourable opinion in accordance with Articles 6 and 18 of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 and concluded that it is unlikely that the placing on the market of the products containing, consisting of, or produced from NK603xMON810 maize as described in the application will have adverse effects on human or animal health or the environment. The two maize varieties containing each of the single traits are already authorised.

As a result of the EFSA opinion, the Commission proposed to authorise all three.

AOB

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  Avian influenza: Commissioner Kyprianou will provide an update with the latest developments on Avian Influenza in the EU and third countries.
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  Bluetongue Disease: Commissioner Kyprianou will provide an update on the disease situation.
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  Foot and Mouth Disease: Commissioner Kyprianou will provide information to the Council on the measures being taken by the Commission following the recent disease outbreaks in UK. The UK will provide an update on the situation.

Agriculture

Sugar restructuring scheme

On 7 May 2007, the European Commission proposed changes to the sugar restructuring scheme aimed at making it more effective and thus reducing 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 main changes proposed are that the percentage of the aid given to growers and machinery contractors should be fixed at 10 percent, but growers who renounce quota will get an additional payment, paid retroactively to avoid penalising those who have already given up their quotas. A new element is that beet growers could apply directly for aid from the restructuring fund, up to a certain limit. As an additional incentive for companies to participate, those which renounce a certain amount of their quota in 2008/09 will be exempted from paying the restructuring levy on the part of their quota which was subject to preventive withdrawal in the 2007/2008 marketing year. 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. If insufficient quota has been renounced by 2010, the Commission also proposes that the level of compulsory quota cut would vary depending on how much quota each Member State had renounced under the restructuring scheme.

The proposals, press release and more information on the sugar reform are available on the internet at:

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

The Council is expected to reach a political agreement on the Commission proposal.

Reform of the wine sector

On 4 July 2007, the European Commission adopted proposals for a wide-ranging reform of the Common Market Organisation for wine. This follows more than one year's discussion with all parties on the ideas launched in the June 2006 Communication. This aims to increase the competitiveness of EU producers, win back markets, balance supply and demand, simplify the rules, preserve the best traditions of EU wine production, reinforce the social fabric of rural areas and respect the environment. Key to the reform will be making better use of the budget (€1.3 billion), which will remain at the current level. Under the proposals, all the inefficient market support measures - various aids for distillation, private storage aid, export refunds - would be abolished from day one.

The addition of sugar to enrich wine - chaptalisation - would be banned, and aid for must for enrichment, introduced to compensate for the higher cost compared to chaptalisation, would also be abolished. Crisis distillation would be replaced by two crisis management measures, paid for from national financial envelopes. Much more money would go into promoting EU wine, particularly on third country markets. For a five-year transitional period, planting restrictions would be kept in place and uncompetitive producers would have the possibility to leave the sector with attractive financial support. After 2013, restrictions on planting would be lifted to allow competitive producers to expand their production if they so choose. Labelling rules would be made simpler, certain wine making practices accepted by all producer countries in the International Organisation of Vine and Wine would be adopted by the EU and quality policy would be based on a geographical origin approach. Member States would receive a national financial envelope and a menu of actions to allow them to take measures best suited to the local situation. More money would go into Rural Development to fund measures including the setting up of young wine producers and environmental protection.

The proposal for the reform, a press release, an impact assessment, a fact sheet and further information on the reform are available on the internet at:

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

Council will have a policy debate on the reform proposal, based on a questionnaire from the Presidency.

Cross-Compliance

In March 2007, the Commission adopted a report to the Council on the application of the system of cross-compliance (see IP/07/440 and COM(2007)147). The report also proposed a raft of measures to improve and simplify the system of cross-compliance

At the June Agriculture Council, ministers adopted conclusions (see IP/07/796 ) backing the Commission's report and calling for quick implementation of the proposals made.

On 29 August, the Commission adopted a draft Council decision (see COM(2007)484) with regard to the measures that fall under Council competence. The most important changes proposed to the existing system of cross-compliance are:

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  A simplification of the so-called "10-month rule" which obliges farmers to keep at their disposal for 10 months any land parcels declared to activate the single payment scheme. It is replaced by a single date - 15 June - which identifies the farmer who is entitled to make a declaration for the activation of the entitlements.
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  New Member States which apply the SAPS scheme of direct aid will normally have to implement the SMRs from 2009. It is now proposed to allow a three-year phasing-in period before the full application of cross-compliance. For Romania and Bulgaria, this phasing-in period would begin in 2012
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  The introduction of the legal basis for the exemptions for minor infringements (cases of non-compliance which would not trigger the minimum reduction) and the de minimus rule (penalties falling below €50).

Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel will present the proposal to the Ministers.

For more information on direct payments and the cross-compliance system, see at:

http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/markets/sfp/index_en.htm

Set-aside

On 13 September, the European Commission proposed to set at 0% the obligatory set-aside rate for autumn 2007 and spring 2008 sowings, in response to the increasingly tight situation on the cereals market (see IP/07/1329 and COM(2007)523) In the EU-27, a lower than expected harvest in 2006 (265.5 million tonnes) led to tightening supplies at the end of marketing year 2006/2007 and to historically high prices. Intervention stocks have shrunk from 14 million tonnes at the beginning of 2006/2007 to around 1 million tonnes now in September, mainly composed of maize held in Hungary. Reducing the set-aside rate from 10% to 0% is expected to increase output by at least 10 million tonnes. The future of the set-aside system will form part of the debate to be kicked off by the Communication on the CAP 'Health Check' in November. This will also address the issue of how to retain the environmental benefits which set-aside has brought. Setting the rate at zero does not oblige farmers to cultivate all their land. They can continue with voluntary set-aside and apply environmental schemes.

The Council is expected to reach a political agreement on this proposal.

AOB

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  Situation on the world market for cereals (Spanish request)
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  WTO - Doha Development Agenda Negotiations: State of play.
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  Fires (requested by Greek and Cypriot delegation)
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  Increase of national reference quantities (quotas) for milk and milk products (Polish demand)

A-points

Under the A-points (points adopted without discussion), the Council will adopt, between others, the so-called "Mini milk package". This is a set of legal acts aiming to simplify the Common Market Organisation for milk and dairy products. The modifications foreseen concern private storage, butter intervention, import licences, drinking milk and aids for school milk. This package of rather technical measures also envisages to allow the standardisation of the rate of proteins in preserved milk (see IP/07/195 ).