Written Answers. - Agenda 2000.
Cecilia Keaveney
Question:
49
Cecilia Keaveney
asked the
Minister for Agriculture and Food
the meetings and the contacts, if any, with the farm bodies and other social partners to obtain their input and views on important issues for the forthcoming Agenda 2000 negotiations.
[5214/99]
Mary Coughlan
Question:
50
Ms Coughlan
asked the
Minister for Agriculture and Food
the meetings, if any, he has had and the contacts, if any, he has made with the EU Commission and other member states and the priority he has given to explaining the Irish position and to developing key alliances for the forthcoming Agenda 2000 negotiations.
[5206/99]
Bernard J. Durkan
Question:
55
Mr. Durkan
asked the
Minister for Agriculture and Food
the proposals, if any, to make new submissions in the context of the current CAP reform; the extent to which these submissions are likely to improve and enhance the agri sector here and throughout Europe; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[5312/99]
John Gormley
Question:
63
Mr. Gormley
asked the
Minister for Agriculture and Food
the proposals, if any, to protect family farms in view of the comments by the President of the IFA that the CAP reform would lead to the American route to ranch scale factory farming; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[5307/99]
Cecilia Keaveney
Question:
75
Cecilia Keaveney
asked the
Minister for Agriculture and Food
the interests represented and meetings held with consultative groups to obtain their views on important issues for the forthcoming Agenda 2000 proposals.
[5213/99]
Bernard J. Durkan
Question:
120
Mr. Durkan
asked the
Minister for Agriculture and Food
the proposals, if any, he will put forward in the context of the current CAP reform to enhance the prospects of those living on the land, both at home and throughout Europe; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[5506/99]
Bernard J. Durkan
Question:
126
Mr. Durkan
asked the
Minister for Agriculture and Food
the measures, if any, he has taken or plans to take in the context of the current CAP reform to address the question of renationalisation within the EU member states; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[5470/99]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 49, 50, 55, 63, 75, 120 and 126 together.
I am in Brussels this week, attending the crucial meeting of the Council of Ministers which is seeking to reach agreement on the CAP reform aspects of the Agenda 2000 proposals.
From the outset of these negotiations, I have made it very clear at meetings of the Council of Ministers that the proposals as presented by the Commission would seriously damage Irish agriculture and the economy. I have indicated in the strongest possible manner my opposition to the proposals and my concerns about the effect they would have on Irish farmers incomes. I have also emphasised my concerns about the lack of equity between member states and between different types of production.
I have also taken every opportunity to put Ireland's case in a series of bilateral meetings with Commissioner Fischler and with ministerial colleagues in other member states which began last year. Recently I met Commissioner Fischler in Dublin on 4 February and had bilateral discussions with the Commissioner and the President of the Council, Herr Funke, the German Minister for Agriculture, in Brussels on 16 February. Intensive bilateral meetings with Commissioner Fischler and with ministerial colleagues are continuing this week. A series of bilateral meetings is also continuing at official level.
I have been mindful of the need to consult as widely as possible domestically about the implications of the CAP reform proposals. That is why I set up four consultative groups, for beef, milk, arable crops and rural development, early last year to which farmers, processors, academics and other interested persons were appointed. The agricultural aspects of Agenda 2000 have also been discussed with all the social partners at Partnership 2000 plenary sessions in April 1998 and January 1999. I am also, of course, conscious of the value of direct consultations with the farm organisations and, most recently, I met the four farm organisations last Wednesday in preparation for this week's Council meeting.
It is hardly necessary for me to say that I am very conscious at all times of the need to protect family farms. One of the key priorities for this Government, as indicated in An Action Programme for the Millennium and in the strategy statement of the Department of Agriculture and Food, is the retention of the highest practicable number of farm households. The Common Agricultural Policy has a multiplicity of objectives and roles but it attaches particular importance to family farming as well as to the environment, food quality and safety and animal welfare. The European model of agriculture has, in general, provided a suitable framework for the development of Irish agriculture and it is my intention to ensure that this model is respected in the current negotiations and defended by the EU in the next round of trade negotiations within the World Trade Organisation.
I do not accept that the Commission's proposals, or the outcome of the negotiations on them, would lead to American ranch-scale or factory farming.
Some measures under discussion could be regarded as movements towards re-nationalisation of the Common Agricultural Policy, or of having such an effect.
These are the proposals for the creation of national envelopes in the beef and milk sectors and the option of co-financing of expenditure on direct payments to farmers which was discussed in the Commission's report on the own resources system published last October. I am opposed in principle to both of those proposals and have expressed that opposition on every appropriate occasion.
