§ Mr. HayesTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will list measures under discussion in European Working Groups at which her Department provides the representative from Her Majesty's Government; and if she will make a statement. [112501]
§ Mr. MorleyThe range of measures under discussion in European Council Working Groups at which Defra provides the lead UK representative are summarised as follows:
Issues relating to greenhouse gas emissions (including mechanism for monitoring emissions); co-generation (combined heat and power); quality of bathing water; regulation of detergents; animal health (controls of foot and mouth); residue levels of pesticides in products of plant and animal origin; issues related to drinking water; a range of issues related to the CFP; review of environmental reporting; infrastructure for spatial information in Europe; waste statistics; FAOs international treaty on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture; conservation, characterisation, collection and utilisation of genetic resources in agriculture; Cartagena Protocol on biosafety to the convention on biological diversity; community comparative tests and trials for seeds and propagating material; waste electrical and electronic equipment directive; restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment directive; end of life vehicles directive and the packaging directive; bovine semen; staging points (animal health aspects); trade in live sheep; monitoring of zoonoses and zoonotic agents; Control of salmonella and other specified food-borne zoonotic agents; organic production of agricultural products; work on surveying a sample of ground points and use of remote sensing/weather information to forecast crop harvests; proposal to modify milk statistics provided by Member States.
691WIn addition to these the Commission's proposal for the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy has been discussed in a series of working groups this year at which the Department has provided the lead representative.