The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Elizabeth Truss)
The next Agriculture and Fisheries Council will be on 22 October in Luxembourg. My hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Farming, Food and Marine Environment (George Eustice), will represent the UK.
As the provisional agenda stands, the following items will be discussed:
There will be a proposal for a Council regulation fixing the 2016 fishing opportunities for certain fish stocks and groups of fish stocks in the Baltic Sea, as well as an exchange of views on the EU-Norway 2016 consultations.
An exchange of views on climate friendly agriculture will also take place.
There are currently five confirmed Any Other Business items:
The use of plant protection products in sustainable agriculture (requested by the Netherlands);
report on the necessity, if any, of provisions for milk-based products destined for infants and sports products (requested by France);
GMO-free agriculture in Europe (requested by Slovenia);
antimicrobial resistance (requested by Germany);
information presented by the Visegrad Group countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) plus Bulgaria, Austria, Romania and Slovenia, on agricultural markets development, particularly with regards to the dairy sector, and best practices in land management including soil protection and management (requested by Czech Republic).
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