HC Deb 21 January 1987 vol 108 cc638-40W
Sir Peter Mills

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the outcome of the Council of Agriculture Ministers meeting in Brussels on 19–21 January; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Jopling

With my right hon. Friend, I represented the United Kingdom at the Council of Agriculture Ministers on 19 to 21 January.

Much of the meeting was taken up with discussions of the negative monetary compensatory amounts to be applied to pigs, eggs and poultry following the recent EMS realignment conference. A political agreement was finally reached on a compromise under which the new increased negative mcas will be introduced for these sectors tomorrow, 22 January. There is provision for one and a half percentage points of pigmeat mcas to be removed in two stages—0.5 of a point on 16 February and one point at the beginning of the 1987–88 milk year. For eggs and poultry the Council will take decisions before the beginning of the 1987–88 year on the basis of proposals which the Commission will be making generally on the agri-monetary system. I insisted throughout this difficult negotiation that there had to be parallel treatment for the United Kingdom in order to safeguard our interests and this was secured.

The Council reached an agreement on the quantity of manufacturing beef to be imported into the Community in 1987 under the balance sheet arrangements. The quantity agreed is 15,000 tonnes of processing beef (of which two thirds is to be for products of particular concern to the United Kingdom manufacturers); in addition a special quota of 8,000 tonnes of high quality beef was agreed. The Commission also repeated its assurance of last year about making beef out of intervention available for manufacturing. The Council also agreed on the import of 168,000 head under the balance sheet for male calves. Given the difficult situation in the beef sector in the Community, these arrangements are a satisfactory outcome for the current year.

The Council discussed and took a number of decisions in principle on arrangements for distributing free food through recognised charitable organisations to the poorest sections of the population who have suffered most from the severe winter. I welcomed this humanitarian action. Several details remain to be clarified by the Commission. Discussions have already taken place with representatives of charitable organisations in the United Kingdom on what administrative arrangement should be best made to ensure that the food is distributed efficiently and effectively to those who are to benefit. We shall announce details of these arrangements as soon as they have been worked out.