§ Mrs. Ann WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the European Commission's decision to cut oilseed support commensurate with Agenda 2000; and if she will make a statement on her Department's policy on the levels of protein imported in the European Union. [31519]
§ Mr. MorleyThe progressive alignment of EU area payment rates for oilseeds with those for cereals is provided for in Council Regulation 1251/99, which implements the decisions on CAP reform taken by the European Council in March 1999, as part of the Agenda 2000 agreement.
Article 10.2 of the regulation requires the European Commission to submit a report to the Council by 30 June 2002 on the development of the oilseeds market in the light of those decisions. This assessment will therefore form part of the mid-term review of Agenda 2000 later this year.
In addition, in response to a request from the Agriculture Council in December 2000, the European Commission has already produced a report on the options for increasing EU plant protein production following the Council's decision to ban meat and bone meal (MBM) from animal rations. The report notes that there is a plentiful supply of plant proteins on the world market and that EU is already the world's largest importer of oilmeals. In the light of this, it concludes that the most cost effective and least trade distorting solution is to look to the world market to make-up the gap left by the MBM ban, rather than to subsidise additional EU plant protein production. The Government agree with the Commission's analysis and fully supports the conclusions reached.