§ Mr. Murphyasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the outcome of the meeting of the Council of Agriculture Ministers on 14–15 November.
§ Mr. MacGregorI represented the United Kingdom at the meeting of the Agriculture Council in Brussels on 14–15 November.
Agreement was reached on the funding for a new five-year programme of common agricultural research for 1984–88. At our insistence, this was limited to 30 million ecu subject to review in 1986 compared with a Commission proposal for a 65 million ecu programme. Ai our insistence there was no commitment to increase funds in that review. We would expect to secure our fair share of contracts under the new programme.
The GATT frozen beef import quota was agreed for 1984 with unchanged national allocations. This is very satisfactory since our importers will be able without interruption to plan their imports over the coming months.
The Council reached agreement on the olive oil consumption aid for 1983–84 at a level well below that for 1982–83 and below that sought by the producer member states. At present price levels, this will result in a substantial saving in the 1984 budget year.
I very much regret that decisions were postponed again on the proposed extensions to less favoured areas in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Italy because of continued objections by three other member states.
At French and Irish insistence, further consideration of the proposals on import arrangements for New Zealand butter for 1984 and beyond was deferred until the December Council.
There was a preliminary discussion of the Commission report on sheepmeat which was referred for detailed technical examination.
483WFinally, I expressed our serious concern about the trading and budgetary implications of Commission proposals for minimum quality standards for cereal exports. The Presidency undertook to consider, with the Commissioner, a request that this issue should be discussed fully at the Council.