Arable Crops
Sugar - European Union Regime
Introduction
The new EU Sugar Regime came into effect on 1 July 2006; this page will be revised shortly.
Reform of the EU Sugar Regime
Latest developments
A full and final Regulatory
Impact Assessment 
(649KB) to the Agriculture Council Agreement of 24 November 2005 was published
in May 2006..
Background
On 24 November 2005, after three days of intensive discussions under the UK Presidency, the Agriculture Council reached agreement in the first major reform of the EU sugar regime since it was introduced nearly 40 years ago.
EU sugar prices are to be cut by 36% over 4 years alongside a voluntary restructuring scheme aimed at reducing production by around 6 million tonnes in the same period. This will enable the EU to comply with the recent WTO ruling limiting subsidised exports and fulfil its existing commitments on preferential imports from ACP and LDC countries without imposing new restrictions. More details on the agreement are available on the EU Commission's website
The agreement followed the Commission's publication of legislative proposals for reform of the sugar regime together with an updated impact assessment on 22 June 2005. On 23 September Defra concluded a public consultation on the Commission's proposals.
The November agreement was the conclusion of a review of the EU Sugar Regime which began in the autumn of 2003 (separately from the main Agenda 2000 mid-term review which was concluded in June of that year).
The European Commission presented a paper on the options for reform in the tobacco, olive oil, cotton and sugars sector at the September 2003 Agriculture Council together with the Commission's assessment of the impact of reform of the EU Sugar Regime. In January 2004, Defra concluded a consultation exercise on these proposals.
On 27 February 2006 the Secretary of State announced a consultation on the arrangements for incorporation of compensation arising from reform of the EU sugar regime into the Single Payment Scheme.
Parliamentary Inquiries
As part of the Parliamentary scrutiny process the House of Lords EU Committee published a report in December 2005 on reform of the EU sugar regime.
In November 2005 the EFRA Committee published their second report on reform of the EU sugar regime together with details of the oral and written evidence:
This followed their earlier report on Reform
of the EU Sugar Regime
(206KB) of July 2004 which, together with the Government's
response
(80KB). Details of the oral
and written evidence is also available.
Further information is available on our Help page
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Page last modified: 11 January 2008
Page published: 26 January 2005