§ Mr. Robert Atkinsasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the outcome of the Council of Agriculture Ministers and the Council of Fisheries Ministers meetings held on 24 and 25 June; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. JoplingI attended these meetings together with my right hon. Friend the Minister of State. The main item at the Agriculture Council concerned the partial suspension of negative monetary compensatory amounts in the pig and poultry sectors which had been agreed as a temporary measure and was due to expire on 30 June. For pigmea.t, the Council decided to adjust the arrangements so as to incorporate the effect of the suspension in the regulations for calculating MCAs. Thus the benefit to the United Kingdom is maintained. For eggs and poultry, the suspension has been continued for a further three months and the Council will return to the matter at a later meeting.
The Council also considered certain measures designed to harmonise law and practice throughout the Community. It adopted a directive concerning the maximum level of aflatoxin in the raw materials for animal feed, and made progress towards agreeing a directive harmonising national systems for the testing of meat for residues. The Fisheries Council took delivery of the Commission's very important report on the enforcement of the common fisheries policy in the light of the findings of its inspectorate of inspectorates. We welcomed this report, for which we had been pressing since December 1984, as did all the main fishing countries of the 309W Community, despite the various criticisms which it contained of deficiencies in national control measures. The Commission made it clear that it would be following up the outstanding problems identified by its inspectors, including taking infractions proceedings where appropriate. The Commission also undertook to submit early proposals for tightening up the definition of member states' duties and the powers of the inspectors, which was necessary for improving the functioning of the control arrangements.
The Council held a preliminary debate on the Community's future structural policy in the fisheries sector in the light of the Commission's communication on this matter, and the Commission will take account of this in formulating its proposals for the arrangements to follow the current structural measures which expire this year. After an exchange of views on the Commission's proposals for the revision of the regulation on technical conservation measures and for a new regulation defining certain technical characteristics of fishing vessels for the application of Community legislation the Council decided to remit these matters for further technical discussion at official level in preparation for discussions at the next Council meeting in September.