Fierce struggle looms in farm talks with applicants

Date: 06/01/2000

By Simon Taylor

Leading candidates for EU membership face a major tussle with existing Union governments over how much grain, meat and milk they will be allowed to produce when they enter the EU.

The level of agricultural production will be a crucial factor in deciding how much funding farmers in the applicant countries will be entitled to receive from the Union's €90-billion farm budget.

The argument stems from the fact that production of the main agricultural commodities has fallen drastically in the candidate countries since the Communist bloc broke up in 1989. The applicants will argue that technological improvements and better management practices will enable them to increase production beyond the levels of recent years. But EU governments will insist that any new members must not be given carte blanche to jack up their output in a bid to milk the Common Agricultural Policy's generous payments system.

The arguments over what are known as 'reference periods' will be relevant in determining issues such as the quotas for dairy production which the applicant countries are given.

This is an enormously sensitive issue in Poland, which has as many dairy farmers as all the existing 15 EU member states put together.

The debate will hot up over the next six months now that the six leading applicant countries have presented their negotiating positions for the agricultural sector. Most of the candidates have not yet specified which reference periods they want to use, and are expected instead to tackle this issue in negotiations with the European Commission.

The arguments over reference periods is likely to become entangled with the other main source of conflict - the question of whether farmers from new member states will be entitled to the compensation payments which existing EU producers receive.

The official Commission line is that new entrants should not receive the pay-outs because they have not suffered price cuts. But the applicant countries are insisting that their farmers would be put at a major economic disadvantage if they were not entitled to the same payments as their competitors in existing member states.

Given the range and complexity of issues which will have to be dealt with in the talks on agriculture, diplomats are warning that Union governments could take up to six months to draw up a common response to the applicant countries' negotiating positions, although the Commission is hoping to finish work on this by April.

Hygiene and veterinary issues also pose major problems for the candidate countries. In Poland, for example, only 30% of all milk produced meets EU health rules, although Warsaw hopes to raise standards to Union levels by 2002. Major efforts will also be required to improve hygiene levels in abattoirs and meat-cutting plants by the time applicants join the EU.

Leading candidates for EU membership face a major tussle with existing Union governments over how much grain, meat and milk they will be allowed to produce when they enter the EU.