Written Ministerial Statement by Jonathan Shaw on the outcome of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council 17 March 2008 - 27 March 2008
The Minister for Marine, Landscape and Rural Affairs and Minister for the South East (Jonathan Shaw)
I represented the United Kingdom at this month’s Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels. The Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Environment, Richard Lochhead, also attended.
The Council unanimously adopted conclusions on the Commission’s Communication on the “health check” of the Common Agriculture Policy.
The Council also adopted by qualified majority, with the UK voting in favour, a proposal to increase national milk quotas by 2% in April 2008.
Under any other business, the Agriculture Commissioner also updated Council on the latest state of play in the WTO-DDA negotiations. Along with a number of Member States, I expressed our support for the Commission’s efforts to reach a balanced conclusion to the current WTO negotiations. France presented a memorandum for debate on competition policy in agriculture to address the organisation of the Agri-food sectors. The memorandum calls for greater powers for producer groups to strengthen farmers’ interests and ability to regulate supply in the food chain. Along with a number of Member States, I underlined our concerns about the possible impact of the proposal on EC competition law.
Ireland expressed concerns about the future development of the sheep sector. Poland called for further relief measures in the form of export refunds to alleviate the difficulties currently being experienced in the pigmeat sector. I strongly opposed the use of such measures as there was no evidence on their efficiency in addressing the short and longer term EU pig sector problems, but favoured the use of market-based solutions to address difficulties faced in both the sheep and pig sectors.
Cyprus called on the Commission to address the effect of the recent increased feed prices on the production of agricultural products.
Page published: 27 March 2008