§ Lord Cochrane of Cultsasked Her Majesty's Government:
What was the outcome of the Agriculture Council held in Brussels on 28 and 29 March.
Earl HoweThis meeting of the Council, at which my right honourable friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food represented the United Kingdom, 67WA held a further lengthy discussion of the Commission's proposals for farm prices and related measures, including milk quotas, for 1994–95. The Council reached no conclusions and will return to the subject at its next meeting. Because prices were not fixed, it was necessary formally to extend the 1993–94 marketing years for beef and milk: the Council so decided by unanimity.
My right honourable friend took the opportunity to refer to recent scare stories in the German press alleging a link between bovine spongiform encephalopathy and human health. My right honourable friend stressed that there was no scientific foundation for this claim, that the measures that had long been in place in the United Kingdom and in the Community were more than adequate protection, and that unilateral action to restrict trade in British beef and cattle would be illegal. My right honourable friend received strong support from the Commission and a number of other member states for her point of view.
The Council adopted several relatively minor measures, namely: a regulation permitting member states to buy up milk quota for redistribution, using funds previously set aside to compensate producers for reduction in quotas; a regulation concerning the use of sums previously agreed for assisting farmers in Portugal affected by drought; a regulation strengthening the controls on subsidised exports of certain processed products; a regulation providing for the levy-free import of certain quantities of wheat, beef, poultrymeat, pork and milling residues, previously agreed as part of the settlement of an earlier dispute with third countries concerning oilseeds; and a regulation providing for the import of a supplementary quantity of high quality beef in 1994. Belgium and Ireland voted against the last two measures and Italy against the one on export controls. The others were adopted unanimously.