22-24 September Agriculture Informal

Date: 26/09/1996

AGRICULTURE Commissioner Franz Fischler criticised the UK for suspending its selective slaughter programme, calling it a “clear break” with the framework agreed in Florence for a staged lifting of the beef export ban. Fischler stressed that this would merely delay the process of restoring confidence in the beef market as a whole. British minister Douglas Hogg was looking for support for lifting the ban on herds certified free of BSE, but at no stage put forward a formal written proposal, as required by the Florence agreement.

MINISTERS expressed their general support for the concepts put forward by the Commission to assist beef farmers, but Council President Ivan Yates said most were against the cost being met by cuts in other sectors. The Commission has proposed sweeping reductions to aid for arable farmers. The next formal Council at the end of October will decide whether to accept proposals for an EU-wide calf slaughter premium and a reduction of carcass weights eligible for intervention.

POLITICAL agreement was reached to ensure that sufficient quantities of surplus beef can be taken into EU stores in October and to allow the first tender in November. A rapid extension of the limits is necessary because the 400,000-tonne ceiling for 1996 is expected to be breached early next month. The Commission wants to raise the limit to 720,000 tonnes, although Germany has argued this is an expensive and inefficient method of propping up the market.

THE meeting also backed the idea of bringing forward around 500 million ecu of 1997 beef and suckler cow aid payments into the current budget year, which ends on 15 October. This is the amount of money thought to be left unused in the 1996 budget. Officials will investigate administrative methods of advancing such payments to improve farmers' cash flow in the short term.

FISCHLER reiterated his plan for a detailed meat labelling and identification scheme so that consumers can tell at a glance where the beef they buy has come from and how it was raised. In an effort to restore sales, the Commission will push for the extension of the 10-million-ecu beef promotion scheme.

FARM policy experts rejected suggestions in an independent report that the current milk quota regime should be scrapped. The report, by Professor S.J. Sheehy, was discussed by the Special Committee for Agriculture in parallel with the ministerial meeting. Germany, Austria, Spain, Greece and Portugal said quotas should be extended beyond 2000. Belgium, the Netherlands and Finland favoured a compromise which would allow increased imports and price fluctuations in line with movements on world markets. The UK, Sweden and Denmark supported the gradual phasing out of quotas with direct compensation to farmers. France claimed the debate was biased in favour of the free market approach and Italy called, yet again, for an increase in its national quota.