§ Lord Hughes of Woodsideasked Her Majesty's Government:
What the outcome was of the Agriculture Council held in Brussels on 18 February 2002. [HL3112]
§ Lord WhittyMy right honourable friend the Secretary of State and I represented the United Kingdom at the meeting of the Agriculture Council in Brussels on 18 February.
3WAThe Commission presented proposals to establish detailed rules for the control and eradication of African swine fever.
The Council discussed proposals to extend the tobacco regime for three years with minor changes. We joined a number of delegations in arguing for a commitment to the eventual phasing out of the regime.
On enlargement, the commission gave a presentation of the approach in its agriculture issues paper.
4WAItaly and France sought approval to pay national aids to supplement prices offered under crisis distillation measures in the wine sector. No decision was taken on this occasion but several member states, including the UK, registered concern at repeated recourse to these measures.
Italy tabled a paper on agriculture policy in the context of the mid term review.
The Commission reported on progress with testing programmes for BSE.