Agriculture Council (Hansard, 17 December 1993)

I represented the United Kingdom at this meeting of the Agriculture Council, which took place from 13 to 17 December.

The Council reached agreement on changes to the regionalisation and set-aside rules under the arable regime; on measures to implement the agreement between the European Community and the United States on oilseeds; on changes to the agrimonetary system; on a one-year rollover of the sugar regime; and on a number of other issues. With the exception of oilseeds, all measures were agreed unanimously.

The Council had been considering set-aside since July and decisions were long overdue. The agreement met the United Kingdom's two key aims. The set-aside requirement for mixtures of rotational and non-rotational set-aside in the United Kingdom will be 18 per cent. of a farm's arable area, the same as for non-rotational set-aside, not 20 per cent. as originally proposed. Farmers finishing a five-year set-aside scheme will be able to enter all the land in that scheme into arable set-aside for a further five years, including, for those who finished five-year agreement this autumn, any land already cultivated for harvest in 1994.

It was also agreed that there will be changes to alleviate the impact of the overshoot of the main arable base area in Scotland. This will be widely welcomed there.

In addition, the Commission will examine the relationship between set-aside and land withdrawn from production for woodland or environmental purposes. While this does not go as far as I would like, it represents an important step forward.

On oilseeds, the Council decided that any cuts in aid arising under the agreement with the United States should fall on those member states in which the area of oilseeds exceeds a level calculated by reference to the 1989–91 average area, but with certain adjustments. I regarded this as unsatisfactory and, with Portugal, voted against.

The changes agreed to the agrimonetary system will reduce the likelihood of green rate revaluations. The Council did not, however, accede to the request by some member states to extend the potentially costly switchover mechanism to floating currencies.

The sugar regime will be extended for a further year, until the end of June 1995. This will enable it to be revised from 1 July 1995 to take account of the Community's new obligations under the GATT and other factors.

The Council agreed to maintain the current level of imports of butter from New Zealand for 1994, pending the implementation of the GATT agreement. The Council also approved voluntary restraint agreements on the import of sheepmeat from third countries during 1994 which will broadly continue 1993 quantities.

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Agreement was reached on the abolition of the headage limit on the annual ewe premium and on provisions permitting member states to attach environmental conditions to the payment of the ewe premium and the beef special premium. These were measures particularly sought by the United Kingdom and the ending of headage limits will be especially welcomed by producers.

Agreement was reached on a measure to improve the welfare of animals at slaughter. But I refused to support proposals on the welfare of animals during transport since, in their present form, they would have allowed unacceptably long intervals between feeding and watering and minimum rest periods that were too short. These proposals clearly need further discussion.

The Council decided that the current moratorium on the use of bovine somatotrophin should be extended for one further year instead of for the longer period proposed by the Commission. It also reached agreement on a proposal on harmonised charging arrangements for the veterinary inspection of fresh meat and on a Community system for inspection of meat from third countries.

I drew the attention of the Council to the serious implications for United Kingdom glasshouse lettuce and other vegetable growers of a proposed Commission measure to control nitrate levels in lettuce. I pointed out that the Scientific Committee for Food was, in any case, still considering the advice it should put forward on the intake of nitrate from vegetables. I am glad to say that the Commissioner accepted the need to examine this issue in the light of both the public health and the economic implications. He confirmed that the Commission would act in the light of the further advice that it expected from the scientific committee.