§ Mr. Macleanasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the outcome of the Council of Agriculture Ministers' meeting held in Brussels on 19 December; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. JoplingThe Council had an initial discussion of a document from the Commission reporting the conclusions reached as a result of the consultations on its earlier paper "Perspectives for the Common Agricultural Policy". This document covers a wide range of issues, including price policy, co-responsibility, changes in intervention arrangements, diversification of production and measures to benefit the environment.
During the discussion I again stressed the paramount importance of price policy in tackling the problems of the CAP, the necessity of observing financial limits, and the need to avoid discrimination between producers.
The Council again considered the Commission's proposal to ban the use of hormones for fattening 352W purposes, which had previously been supported by all member states except the United Kingdom. After a long discussion, the Chairman decided that a revised version of the text, in the form of a directive, should be voted upon by written procedure. If approved by qualified majority vote, the ban would apply from 1 January 1988.
As a result of my pressure, the Commission indicated that it would use the procedures set out in the directive to propose a derogation which would postpone the introduction of the ban in the United Kingdom until 1 January 1989. Nevertheless I intend to vote against the measure. There is no scientific evidence justifying the ban, and the procedure is contrary to the Council's earlier decision that a ban should be introduced only by unanimous agreement between member states.