The second Agriculture and Fisheries Council under the French Presidency, was held on September 29th and 30th. The Council, chaired by Michel Barnier, followed the  meeting of the EU’s fisheries ministers. The reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was one of the main points of the Agenda, focusing an important part of the meetings.

This Council was dominated by trilateral meetings (Presidency, Commission, Member State), held on Monday September 29th evening, and Tuesday September 30th morning, on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

In these meetings, Member States were invited to set out their three priorities for negotiation, whose main results will be compiled to formulate a general approach during the Agriculture and Fisheries Council in October in Luxembourg. The final decision of the Council on the reform will not be taken until after the European Parliament has made its opinion known, which will take place during the Council in November.

The issue of distributing fruit and vegetables in schools was also the subject of debate, notably on the budgetary aspects and question of the origin of the produce. The new programme for distributing food aid to the most deprived was presented by the Commission and will be debated in a future Council.

With regard to fishing, the Council held a policy debate on the cod recovery plan and also authorised the Commission to proceed with the payment of the funds provided for by the EU-Mauritania fishing agreement, provided that all the requisite conditions have been met.

The Council also authorised Cyprus to grant emergency aid to its farmers severely affected by the drought of the last two years.

Finally, ministers’ awareness was drawn to a number of points at the request of several Member States:

• Ireland drew the Council’s attention to the agricultural consequences of the energy-climate package.
• Poland raised the possibility of using the margins under the CAP budget ceilings for the benefit of the new Member States and to augment the funds allocated for promotion, and also asked the Commission to restore customs rights on the cereals market.
• The Netherlands called for the rapid publication of the text on the illegal trade in wood.
• Belgian, Dutch, Luxembourg and Spanish delegations, supported by more than 15 Member States and the Presidency, asked the Commission to give careful consideration to the question of Community financing for the bluetongue vaccination campaign. The Presidency noted all of these points and asked the Commission to take account of these concerns of the Member States.