Agriculture and Fisheries Council

Tuesday 25th November 2014 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Elizabeth Truss)]

My noble Friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord de Mauley), represented the UK at the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council on 10 November in Brussels. Richard Lochhead MSP was also present.

Fisheries

Deep sea fishing opportunities 2015 and 2016

Commissioner Vella outlined his ambitions for setting fishing opportunity levels for deep sea stocks in 2015 and 2016. He stressed the need to manage stocks sustainably and to protect the long-term interests of EU fishermen. Several member states raised concerns with the Commission’s proposals and pressed for higher total allowable catches (TACs). Lord de Mauley, along with Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark, agreed with the Commission that deep sea ecosystems and fish stocks were particularly vulnerable and needed to be fished sustainably to ensure the future of deep sea fisheries: The presidency and the Commission engaged in political negotiations over the course of the day and eventually tabled a compromise proposal, which Spain and Portugal voted against. The compromise proposal was, however, agreed by qualified majority voting.

Agriculture

2015 budget amending letter

A majority of member states opposed the Commission’s proposals in its amending letter to the 2015 budget to fund the emergency measures in response to the Russian import ban from the CAP crisis reserve. These member states also supported a common declaration tabled by France setting out their opposition. Lord de Mauley expressed sympathy with member states who have been heavily impacted by the illegal and unjustified trade measures imposed by Russia. However, he made clear that the Commission’s proposal was part of much wider budget negotiations and that Finance Ministers would need to consider this within those discussions. Commissioner Hogan noted comments and stated that conciliation discussions were ongoing.

Cyprus state aid

The Commission agreed to Cyprus’s request to remove a Council decision under Article 108(2) TFEU, granting an exemption from state aid rules to waive all tax on motor fuel used for agriculture, from the Council agenda until December.

Any other business

Organic regulation

Lord de Mauley, along with a number of other Ministers, broadly supported the common declaration of the V4+3 countries (CZ, PL, HU, SK, BG, RO, SI) which calls on the Commission to ensure its proposal for a new organic regulation promotes growth of the sector. The Netherlands, Austria and Germany questioned whether the Commission should withdraw its proposal and start again given the extent of member states’ concerns. Commissioner Hogan said that he was willing to consider changes to the proposals and hoped that an agreement could be reached in 2015.

Peaches and nectarines

Commissioner Hogan rejected a Greek request for additional support measures for Greek peach and nectarine producers arguing that prices in Greece were above the EU average. He also urged Greece to consider structural problems in the sector as it had suffered three crises in the last six years and these would reoccur if problems of oversupply were not addressed.

Young farmers

The presidency presented a short paper on ideas to strengthen EU policies for young farmers. Several member states were interested in the idea of working with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to increase young farmers’ access to credit. While underlining the range of existing measures available to support young farmers, Commissioner Hogan confirmed that he had established a working group between the EIB and his Commission services to explore ideas in this area.

ICAAN internet domain names

France and Spain urged the Commission to prevent the sale of generic internet domain names such as .wine or .vin as it risked undermining the protection of EU producers, particularly those with registered geographical indications. Commissioner Hogan stressed that he was keeping this under close review.

Protection of honey bees

Slovenia called for a new legal framework on residue levels for substances in bee feed composition. Commissioner Andriukaitis stressed that he would do all he could to protect bee health but believed member states and bee keepers were often better placed to help.

Western corn rootworm

Austria, Hungary and Romania called for EU-wide measures to prevent the spread of the damaging western corn rootworm. Lord de Mauley supported their request and underlined the need to review the pesticides regulation. Commissioner Andriukaitis offered to examine the situation and acknowledged that a harmonised pesticide approval system would improve the availability of pesticides.