§ Lord Dubsasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will report progress on the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food's recent meeting with other EU Agriculture Ministers to discuss further reform of the CAP. [HL4440]
§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Baroness Hayman)Together with ministerial colleagues from Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands, my right honourable friend, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Nick Brown) took part in discussions on the future direction of the common agricultural policy at a meeting on Capri hosted by the Italian Minister of Agricultural Policy, Mr Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio. These discussions carried forward the fruitful co-operation between Italy, Denmark, Sweden and UK which was a feature of the 1999 Agenda 2000 negotiations on the CAP. The Dutch Minister participated in the meeting for the first time in an observer capacity. Given the challenges of EU enlargement and the WTO trade negotiations to98WA the future of the CAP, the participating Ministers agreed a programme of collective work on reform of the CAP, and decided to meet in a similar format in the course of next year. A copy of the framework document agreed upon at the Capri meeting has been placed in the Library of the House.