Agriculture and Fisheries Council Chaired by Minister Gandalovic

Tisková zpráva Press Release Communiqué de presse

Prague, 19 January 2009

Agriculture and Fisheries Council Chaired by Minister Gandalovic

For the first time as President of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council, Czech Agriculture Minister Petr Gandalovic opened the discussion on the principles of legal timber trade on the EU market.

At the meeting, the Member States expressed their opinion on the mandate of the Commission to determine under which conditions the EU could become a member of the International Wine and Vine Organisation; the current situation on the milk market was also discussed. Gandalovic presented to his colleagues the programme of the Czech Presidency and the areas where the Presidency wishes to take the European agenda further. The priority areas are the following: uture of the Common Agricultural Policy, especially the direct payments system, foodstuffs quality policy and streamlining of the EU legislation. 

The compromise conclusions of the CAP Health Check included the commitment of the Commission and the Council to deal with the direct payments system and their different rates in the EU Member States thoroughly. The Presidency chose the direct payments system as its priority as well as the topic of the informal meeting to be held in Brno in May/June 2009. The CAP, as one of the oldest common EU policies, is bound by an enormous quantity of legislative acts and rules. Their streamlining, both for the farmers and the Commission as well as other subjects, and eliminating obsolete and unnecessary legislation is another priority for the Presidency. It can test its determination during the amendment of the rules concerning the common market organisation for wine. As far as the revision of the foodstuffs quality policy is concerned, the Presidency will follow up on the public debate based on the Green Paper published by the Commission in October 2008. The discussion will be summed up at a ministerial conference to be held in Prague in March, attended by European Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel.

Current tasks include the final amendment to the Regulation on the protection of animals at the time of killing and the implementation of the plant protection products package. As far as the ‘revision of the EU policy concerning quality’ of foodstuffs and agricultural products is concerned, the Presidency will deal with the standards for poultry meat. A new item on the agenda is the proposal for a regulation laying down the obligations of operators who place timber and timber products on the market, which aims to fight illegal logging.

At the request of Slovakia, Poland and Latvia and with the support of a number of other Member States the current situation on the milk market was discussed. European Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel confirmed that the European Commission has already come up with instruments that could stop the plummeting prices of raw milk. These instruments include intervention buying of butter and dried skimmed milk that will commence on 1 March and will last until the end of August. However, it is already obvious that the proposed 30 thousand tons of butter and 109 thousand tons of dried milk will be reached soon and the Commissioner has already declared the preparedness to support the milk market beyond these quotas. The export subsidies in the form of tenders will be reintroduced not only for butter and dried skimmed milk but for all product that qualified for these subsidies in the past, for dried semi-skimmed milk and various kinds of cheese.

Tereza Dvorácková
Spokeswoman of the Ministry of Agriculture