The Agenda 2000 agreement which covers the period 2000 to 2006 and which was finalised in Berlin in March 1999, represented a highly satisfactory outcome for Irish agriculture and rural areas. My intention is to safeguard, to the greatest extent possible, the benefits to Ireland from the agreement in the context of the forthcoming mid-term review and the negotiation of a new World Trade Organisation round.
The EU's negotiating mandate on agriculture for the WTO negotiations, which has been agreed by the Council of Ministers, is based primarily on the Agenda 2000 agreement. I am satisfied that the WTO ministerial declaration which launched the new round of WTO negotiations in Doha in November 2001 is in accordance with that mandate. The mandate provides a satisfactory framework for protecting the interests of the Irish agriculture and food industries and it is my intention to ensure that it will be fully respected in the negotiations themselves, which are scheduled to end by 2005.