Ministers meeting at the Council of Agriculture and Fisheries held in Brussels on 28 September raised a series of questions relating Commission's communication on the freedom for Member States to decide on the cultivation of genetically modified crops and its compliance with internal market and WTO rules. Among other questions, Ministers also discussed over a proposal for a regulation on distribution of food products for the most deprived persons and specific measures for agriculture in the outermost regions of the Union.

The Council held an exchange of views on the Communication on the freedom for Member States to decide on the cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and raised the folowing questions.

• What economic impact and what consequences for the internal market are these Commission proposals likely to have?
• What steps need to be taken to ensure that the Commission proposals comply with WTO rules and internal market rules?

Some of the delegations welcomed the proposal as an attempt to solve the current situation whilethers expressed strong reservations. However, most delegations, expressed their concerns on the two issues raised in the questions from the Presidency and are awaiting for an opinion from the Council legal service on the issue of the compatibility of the proposal with World Trade Organisation (WTO) and internal market rules.

The package about GMO cultivation in the EU presented by the Commission on 13 July 2010 comprises a communication, a new recommendation on the co-existence of genetically modified crops with conventional and organic farming and a legislative proposal amending Directive 2001/18/EC. The new recommendation on co-existence allows Member States greater flexibility in the development of national co-existence measures and allows them to define GM-free areas. Directive 2001/18/EC would be amended to include an article allowing Member States to restrict or prohibit the cultivation in all or part of their territory of GMOs authorised at European level.

As concluded by Council this restriction should be based on grounds other than those related to the adverse effect on health and the environment, in order to retain the value of the scientific evaluation conducted at the European level by the European Food Safety Authority and stay compatible with the WTO rules.

Distribution of food products to the most deprived persons in the Union

Ministers were briefed by the Commission on a proposal for a regulation concerning distribution of food products to the most deprived persons in the Union. Some delegations expressed a reservation on this text, as was the case for the first proposal presented by the Commission in 2008, as regards the legal basis for this text, which in their view should be drawn from social policy rather than agricultural policy. Other delegations were also concerned with the co-financing of the measure.

Specific measures for agriculture in the outermost regions of the Union

Ministers held an exchange of views following a presentation by the Commission of a proposal for a regulation laying down specific measures for agriculture in the outermost regions of the Union. The Commission also presented the first report on the effects of the 2006 reform of the Programme of Options Specifically Relating to Remoteness and Insularity (POSEI) regime.

Some delegation noted the importance of these measures for the regions concerned and questioned the legal basis of the Commission proposal. The Special Agriculture Committee will work on this subject before the proposal is re-presented to ministers.

High Level Group (HLG) on Milk

The Council also took note of the Presidency conclusions on the report of the High Level Group (HLG) on Milk as supported by a large majority of delegations. These conclusions follow-on from the HLG recommendations and invite in particular the Commission to submit before the end of the year its response to the first three recommendations, concerning:

• Enhanced contractual relations between milk producers and dairies
• Producers' collective bargaining power
• The possible role of interprofessional organisations in the dairy sector