European farm ministers meeting in Brussels yesterday reached political agreement that the measures contained in the recent reform of the CAP constitutes the limit in terms of concessions which can be made by Europe in the word trade talks due to resume in Mexico in September.
In this, the first Council of EU Agriculture Ministers meeting under the Italian presidency, there was concern about any more demands for EU spending and production cutbacks, especially from the US.
The Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, told the EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Fisheries, Dr Fischler, there was a danger that some of the trading partners in the WTO (World Trade Organisation) might seek to pocket the reforms and demand more from the EU. However, the Ministers were assured that the agreement made in June in Luxembourg covered their concerns about conceding any more unless there were to be movement from the other trading partners in WTO.
The radical reforms which have been agreed by the member states include the decoupling of direct payments from farm production with an option to individual states to decouple all the schemes or some of them and a 19 per cent cut in market supports for dairying.
The one-day meeting also heard reports from the French, Austrian, German and Italian ministers about the impact of drought conditions on mainland Europe since May.
The meeting was told that in some countries a fodder crisis was looming and in others, the extent of the damage to yields this year was going to be very high. All complained of levels of rainfall at below 50 per cent of normal and temperatures in excess of 30C which were causing crop losses. In parts of northern Italy, Spain and France, the price of some soft fruit and vegetables has risen 30 per cent.
Dr Fischler, who has already released some intervention grain for feeding purposes, agreed to try and find ways of assisting farmers hit by the drought.
The Ministers, who also formally adopted proposals on the labelling of GM foods and foods containing GM material, discussed the issue of food hygiene.
The Commission is seeking to reduce the 17 food hygiene regulations currently covering the area to five composite regulations. The regulations will be discussed again at the next meeting of the Ministers in September.