§ Mr. Budgenasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the outcome of the Council of Agriculture Ministers' meeting in Luxembourg on 30 June; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Peter WalkerMy right hon. Friend the Minister of State and I represented the Government yesterday at the special meeting of the Agriculture Council to discuss the problem over sheepmeat clawback. I emphasised again the importance of implementing an acceptable solution to this problem which would ease the difficulties of our exporters. The Council examined in depth the proposals which the Commission had put to the management committee, as well as other approaches.
The outcome was that eight of the other nine member States indicated that they, like us, would be ready to support in the management committee proposals based on the Commission's approach—though I made it clear that certain changes would be needed to achieve the results 412W desired. The Commission is expected to discuss this matter further today before again putting proposals to the management committee.
At the conclusion of the meeting, I withdrew our reserves on those regulations arising from the price fixing which are operative from 1 July and on the regulations relating to structures, including those which will benefit Northern Ireland and the Western Isles of Scotland. But I maintained reserves on the remaining outstanding regulations from the price fixing package, which include regulations on wine, cereals and vegetable oils.