HL Deb 15 December 1983 vol 446 cc385-8WA
Lord Mottistone

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What was the outcome of the discussions on the common agricultural policy and the common fisheries policy at the Council of Ministers meetings earlier this week.

The Earl of Swinton

At its meeting on 12th and 13th December the Council of Agriculture Ministers agreed that 13,833 tonnes of New Zealand butter could be imported into the United Kingdom during the next two months as an interim arrangement pending further discussion by the Council of the Commission's proposal for imports of New Zealand butter over the next five years.

A one-year roll-over of the arrangements for monetary compensatory amounts was also agreed and a six-month extension of the existing United Kingdom foot and mouth derogations.

Since there were no Commission proposals it was not possible to take decisions on the continuation beyond the end of this year of the structures measures. It is expected that there will be proposals for discussion at the January Council and that decisions taken will be back-dated to the beginning of the year. Further discussion of the extension of the United Kingdom Less Favoured Areas will also take place at the same time in January.

On eggs, my right honourable friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food stressed the need in the interests of better marketing for an early decision on the kind of information and promotional material to be allowed on retail egg packs. The Council will return to this issue in the New Year.

On the beef carcase classification grid, my right honourable friend stressed that much more technical work was necessary before any decisions could be taken and that it would be essential to ensure that the proposed new arrangements would in fact work out better than existing ones. The Commission's proposals on sheepmeat were also remitted for further detailed work.

My right honourable friend pressed the Commission to take action over the continuing trade distortion created by exports of cheap French agricultural alcohol to other Community markets. The Commis- sioner replied that he would pursue this issue, which was already under consideration.

The Council had a preliminary discussion of future procedure following the Athens Summit and agreed to return to this in January.

On 14th December the Council of Fisheries Ministers reached agreement on a series of important decisions which resolve the main outstanding problems affecting the common fisheries policy, and started discussion of the total allowable catches and quotas for 1984.

First, the Council at last agreed on the percentage allocations of North Sea herring, a matter which has been the subject of long and difficult negotiations at no less than six Council meetings since June. The settlement reached was very satisfactory from the United Kingdom point of view: at a total availability of 155,000 tonnes, which is about the level expected in 1984, the United Kingdom will obtain 24.15 per cent. of the total, after allocating the fixed quantity of 7,100 tonnes to Belgium; while at a level of 251,000 tonnes we will obtain 23 per cent., after allocating 6,000 tonnes to Belgium. These shares are well in excess of the United Kingdom's share of the historic catches—which averaged only about 16 per cent. between 1960 and 1976. Throughout the negotiations on this difficult subject my right honourable friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food stayed in close touch with representatives of the industry and I am grateful for the strong and sensible support which they have given. I am happy to say they welcomed the settlement reached.

At my right honourable friend's request the Commission are approaching the Norwegians today to seek to establish arrangements which will permit fishing for herring in the North Sea to commence as early as possible in 1984.

The Council also endorsed the agreement between the Community and Norway on TACs and shares of the joint stocks other than herring and on reciprocal fishing rights. There is some concern about the level of the TACs for North Sea white fish stocks. We had previously managed to obtain larger transfers of cod from the Norwegians but, again at my right honourable friend's request, the Commission have undertaken urgently to discuss with the Norwegians increased availability of North Sea cod.

The Council went on to agree on total allowable catches and quotas for 1983, including a number of improvements which we secured in the negotiations on stocks of interest to our fishermen.

There was a preliminary discussion of the Commission's proposals for TACs and quotas for 1984 on which my right honourable friend raised a number of points of concern to the United Kingdom. The Council will resume discussion of these proposals at its next meeting in January. For the month of January the Council agreed that fishing should continue on the basis of a rollover of the 1983 quotas as modified by the agreement with Norway.

Lastly, the Community's agreement with Canada was approved by the Council. This provides for some fishing opportunities for the United Kingdom in Canadian waters and for fair and effective trade arrangements which adequately protect our catchers and processors.

This was a very important meeting on fisheries. The last piece of the common fisheries policy jigsaw is now in place and we are already into discussions of the 1984 TACs. There is now every prospect of developing its effectiveness and providing a secure and stable basis for the fishing industry in future