Europe Agri articles from February 2007

Europe Agri archives from February 2007

ANTI-TOBACCO ADVERT.
February 9, 2007... The European Commission presented on 12 January a new television commercial on the dangers of smoking. It is the latest weapon in the arsenal put together under Help - For a life without tobacco,' the European initiative to discourage smoking....

AGRICULTURAL AID.(European Union. European Commission)(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... The European Commission's voluntary modulation proposal, allowing 20% of direct aid under the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) to be used for rural development projects, has been rejected, by near unanimity, for the second time by the European...

AGRICULTURE'S PROSPECTS.
February 9, 2007... The new study, Scenar 2020 - Scenario study on agriculture and the rural world,' is about understanding potential changes in the sector up until 2020. The study was carried out by the European Centre for Nature Conservation, the...

CAT AND DOG FUR.
February 9, 2007... The EU Agriculture Council held an exchange of views on 30 January on the ban on marketing and import-export of cat and dog fur. On 20 November 2006, the European Commission sent a proposal which aims to ban trade in cat and dog fur at EU...

SUGAR MARKET : COMMISSION CALLS FOR PREVENTIVE CUTS IN SUGAR PRODUCTION.
February 9, 2007... The European Commission decided on 29 January to make a proposal to the Management Committee in February for a Commission regulationafixing a provisional figureafor withdrawal of at least two million tonnes from the sugar market, ie...

EU/US/WTO : COMMISSION DISAPPOINTEDBY US FARM BILL REFORM PROPOSAL.
February 9, 2007... The proposal presented by the Bush administration to the US Congress for reforming subsidies to US farmers is disappointing to the European Commission. Its lack of ambition puts a damper on hopes for the relaunch of the Doha Round of...

BIODIVERSITY : COMMISSION SET TO ALLOW MARKETING OF TRADITIONAL SEED.
February 9, 2007... Rules for the market release of agricultural seed, seen as excessively strict and in need of review, have increasingly been under attack by European associations and regions interested in protecting biodiversity. After years of equivocation,...

MILK : COMMON MARKET ORGANISATION FOR MILK TO BE SIMPLIFIED.
February 9, 2007... The European Commission should adopt in mid-February a proposal aimed at simplifying several measures in the Common Market Organisation for milk and milk products. The modifications planned by Brussels concern private storage, butter...

FREE MOVEMENT OF CAPITAL : DANISH OWNER-OCCUPIER FARMLAND LAW DEEMED ILLEGAL.(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... A Danish law that forces people who buy farmland to reside on that property has been found in breach of EU rules on the free movement of capital. In a preliminary ruling delivered on 25 January (Case C-370/05), the EU Court of Justice rejected...

DOHA ROUND : DAVOS FORUM GIVES NEW IMPETUS TO STALLED TRADE TALKS.
February 9, 2007... International efforts to rekindle the Doha Round trade talks, stalled since July 2006, are being confirmed. The ministers of 23 World Trade Organisation member countries made a commitment, on 27 January at the World Economic Forum in Davos...

RURAL DEVELOPMENT : EP'S FREEZE ON MODULATION OF PAYMENTS WORRIES MEMBER STATES.
February 9, 2007... European Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel announced on the margins of the EU's Agriculture Council on 29 January in Brussels that the presentation of national plans for rural development 2007-2013, their adoption by the experts of...

FISHERIES : EU MEDITERRANEAN CATCH DECLINES 28% OVER A DECADE.
February 9, 2007... The EU's fishing catch in the Mediterranean has declined by 28% over the period 1993-2004, according to data published by Eurostat, with figures showing that the catch for the EU-25 countries decreased from 670 thousand tonnes in 1993, to 480...

FRUIT AND VEGETABLE : FISCHER BOEL'S CMO PROPOSALS DRAW MIXED REACTIONS.
February 9, 2007... Agriculture professionals have given a lukewarm reaction to the proposals presented on 24 January by Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel for reform of the Common Market Organisation for fruit and vegetables. All welcomed the...

FISHERIES : INDIAN OCEAN AGREEMENT.
February 9, 2007... The new partnership agreement between the European Commission and the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) was formally signed at a meeting in the Seychelles on 23-24 January. The agreement provides for the EU to give financial support to the IOC to...

FRANCE OTHE OFFENSIVE.(Dominique Bussereau)(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... No doubt prompted by the upcoming French presidential elections, French Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau was on the offensive during the Agriculture Council on 30 January in Brussels. He took a very aggressive line against EU...

GMO PETITION.(Genetically modified organisms)(Greenpeace International)(Markos Kyprianou)(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... Greenpeace delivered a petition with 1 million signatures to Markos Kyprianou on 5 February, demanding that specific information appear on the packaging used for live animal products (milk, meat, eggs, etc.), indicating whether the animal had...

FISHERIES : GREATER EFFORTS NEEDED TO SAVE DEEP SEA SPECIES, SAYS REPORT.
February 9, 2007... Measures currently in place to protect deep sea species in EU waters are clearly inadequate, the European Commission said in a new report publishedon 29 January. Among the conclusions of the report are that, for many deep sea species,...

ENERGY : GREEN MEPS WARN AGAINST PLANT FUEL HYSTERIA.
February 9, 2007... At a breakfast meeting with US environmentalist Lester Brown, Green MEPs set out a position paper on food security and plant fuels entitled Food First'. Green MEPs Rebecca Harms, Satu Hassi and Friedrich Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf argue that...

ANIMAL HEALTH : H5 BIRD FLU RETURNS TO EUROPE.
February 9, 2007... After only five months away, the highly pathogenic H5 bird flu virus has reappeared in Europe. The European Commission in Brussels, on 24 January, confirmed that H5 had been found on a goose farm in the south of Hungary. The last reported case...

HUNGARIAN MEASURES AGAINST BIRD FLU.
February 9, 2007... A European Commission proposal to approve the protection, surveillance and buffer zones set up by the Hungarian authorities in response to the recent outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, and to add them to the Annex of Decision...

ILLEGAL DUTCH AID TO MANURE COMPANIES.
February 9, 2007... The Commission has decided to refer the Netherlands to the EU Court of Justice following the failure of the country to comply with a Commission decision of 13 December 2000. This decision required the Netherlands to recover the unlawful and...

MEASURING FISHING EFFORT.
February 9, 2007... Alternative methods are to be examined by the Commission for measuring fishing effort and boat capacity, according to a communication adopted by the EU executive on 5 February. Among its intentions are that a new definition should be drawn up...

ALCOHOL : MEPS HONOUR TRADITIONAL VODKA.
February 9, 2007... Traditional vodka is produced according to traditional methods based on potatoes, cereals or molasses, without the addition of other substances. Only this can be called vodka' and can thus benefit from differentiated labelling, as decided by...

WINE : MEPS REACT TO WINE REFORM PROPOSALS.
February 9, 2007... Maintaining the short term distillation measures, a restricted grubbing programme, the gradual liberalisation of planting rights are the main points of the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee's opinion, issued on 24 January, on the...

HEALTH : MEPS REJECT BINDING MEASURES ON OBESITY.
February 9, 2007... The own-initiative report by Frederique Ries (ALDE, Belgium) on healthy diets and physical exercise, which was easily adopted on 1 February in plenary session in the European Parliament, does not venture off the beaten track. For now, the...

FISHERIES : MINISTER SEEHOFER SEES URGENT NEED FOR STOCK RECOVERY.
February 9, 2007... Putting in place a long-term management plan for cod in the Baltic Sea is one of the priorities on the German Presidency's fisheries agenda, according to Minister Horst Seehofer. Speaking in the European Parliament's Fisheries Committee on...

AGRICULTURE COUNCIL : MINISTERS VERY RELUCTANT TO ABOLISH MAIZE INTERVENTION.
February 9, 2007... The EU farm ministers were clearly disinclined, on 29 January in Brussels, to go along with the European Commission's proposal to abolish the maize intervention mechanism. Naturally, the countries that would be most directly affected by the...

GRAIN MARKETS : MIXED TRENDS IN WORLD GRAIN MARKETS.
February 9, 2007... World grain markets displayed mixed trends in the past two months, with US futures particularly volatile, said the International Grain Council in its report dated 25 January. While US wheat fundamentals appeared to ease after the strong...

ENERGY : NGOS WANT EU BIOFUEL TARGETS DITCHED.
February 9, 2007... Mandatory targets proposed by the European Commission for biofuel use in transport may cause the EU to breach commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to some 25 European environmental NGOs. The organisations argue that...

PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEES.(Brief article)
February 9, 2007... The presidents and vice-presidents of the committees and two sub-committees of the European Parliament were elected on 31 January ; Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI): Neil PARISH (EPP-ED, UK) - Jean-Claude FRUTEAU (PES, FR) , Bernard...

FRUIT AND VEGETABLES : PRODUCER STATES RAIL AGAINST EU'S "LACK OF AMBITION".
February 9, 2007... The proposal for reform of the Common Market Organisation for fruit and vegetables, tabled by the European Commission on 24 January, met with a cool reaction from producer member states. Without going as far as putting up a common front, seven...

FISHERIES : SIGNIFICANT DECLINE IN CATCHES IN THE NORTHEAST ATLANTIC.
February 9, 2007... Fish catches by the EU-25 in the Northeast Atlantic have fallen 30% in the last decade, according toEurostat figures. The total catch recorded for the EU in 2005 (the most recent year dealt with in the figures) was 4.1 million tonnes,...

AGRICULTURAL MARKETS : THE PROSPECTS FOR MARKETS AND INCOME 2006-2013.
February 9, 2007... In a new report published on 5 February by the European Commission on prospects for agricultural markets and income, the medium-term income projections display a rather favourable outlook, predicting that EU-27 agricultural income will grow by...

BIRD FLU : VIGILANCE STEPPED UP AFTER H5N1 VIRUS RETURNS TO EUROPE.
February 9, 2007... Over the last two weeks the European health commissioner,aMarkos Kyprianou's, calls for increased vigilance against bird flu have been increasingly vindicated. Following the discovery of a household with the highly pathogenic Asian H5N1 strain...

NIELS WICHMANN/EUROPECHE.(Association of the National Organisations of Fishery Enterprises )(Brief article)
February 23, 2007... The General Assembly of Europeche (Association of the National Organisations of Fishery Enterprises in the European Union) has just re-elected his President Niels Wichmann (photo) for another two-year mandate starting from February. Niels...

FARM PRODUCE : 28 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS TO BENEFIT FROM PROTECTED DENOMINATION.
February 23, 2007... The European Commission has added 27 denominations of agricultural and food products to the list of Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI). For Belgium: Geraardsbergse mattentaart (PGI). For Spain:...

EU/ACP : 78 NEW PROJECTS TO BE FINANCED BY THE WATER FACILITY.
February 23, 2007... In light of the spectacular number of requests for funding received by the European Commission, the success on paper of the EU's Water Facility for the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries is very telling. In the end, 78...

EU BUDGET : AGRICULTURAL POLICY, KEY AREA IN THE EU'S BUDGETaREVIEW.
February 23, 2007... The two main points of focus in the review of the EU budget will be the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the British rebate. a"There is a growing feeling of acceptance that it is in these two areas that negotiations will have to take...

BASIC FOODS PLATFORM.
February 23, 2007... The French dairy group Lactalis, the New York-based company Bunge (vegetable oil), and the Portuguese company Nutrinveste (olive oil) have decided to join forces to form the European Basic Foods Platform to defend the interests of the basic...

BIRD FLU.
February 23, 2007... Britain's Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer Fred Landeg said on 13 February that government scientists have found that the H5N1 strain of bird flu found in England is "essentially identical," or 99.96% similar, to the one found on 23 January in...

MILH : COMMISSION PROPOSES TO SIMPLIFY MILK MARKET RULES.
February 23, 2007... The European Commission proposed, on 15 February to the EU Council of Ministers, certain technical changes that will simplify the Common Market Organisation for milk and dairy products. The proposed simplification concerns private storage,...

AGRICULTURAL POLICY : CONFERENCE DEBATES EUROPEAN QUALITY LABEL.
February 23, 2007... Should Europe add its brand to the plethora of quality labels, signs and logos already present on the Community market in order to promote the efforts made by EU producers, particularly in terms of hygiene and animal well-being? This is the...

ENVIRONMENT COUNCIL : COUNCIL IDENTIFIES GAPS IN LEGISLATION ON PESTICIDES.
February 23, 2007... A legal framework for Community action is vital for remedying the shortcomings of existing legislation and establishing general and flexible rules to reduce dependence on pesticides and limit risks to health and the environment. In conclusions...

COMPETITION : DANONE LOSES BEER CARTEL APPEAL.
February 23, 2007... On 8 February, the EU Court of Justice rejected in its entirety an appeal by Groupe Danone against a fine imposed for its participation in the Belgian beer cartel. The Court ruled (Case C-3/06) that previous offences could increase cartel fines...

DOHA ROUND : DRIVE TO RELAUNCH TALKS IS STARTING TO STALL.
February 23, 2007... The drive to relaunch the Doha Round trade talks has made no real headway since the start of the year and hopes for a forthcoming breakthrough on agriculture seem to be growing slimmer as the United States is starting to push back the timing...

AVIAN INFLUENZA : FAO CONFIDENT UK AUTHORITIES CAN HANDLE BIRD FLU OUTBREAK.
February 23, 2007... FAO today expressed confidence in the capacity of authorities in the United Kingdom to adequately respond to the recent outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza at a commercial turkey farm there. British authorities are still trying to determine the...

WINE CMO : FISCHER BOEL OPEN TO IDEAS ON GRUBBING.
February 23, 2007... The European Agriculture Commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, assured MEPs that she pays heed to their proposals for a reform of the Common Market Organisation (CMO) for wine, particularly with regard to the rate of changes imposed on the wine...

FRESH IMPETUSTO RURAL AREAS.
February 23, 2007... The German EU Council Presidency attaches great importance to renewable resources. With the Conference 'Fuelling the Future - Renewable Resources Show the Way Forward for Rural Areas in Europe', in Nuremberg on 5 - 6 March, the German Federal...

ENVIRONMENT COUNCIL : IS A DIRECTIVE ON SOILS REALLY NECESSARY?(Brief article)
February 23, 2007... Although in general EU member states accept the need for a Community strategy aimed at defining a common approach and common targets for the protection of soils, not all member states are convinced that there is a need for a directive on the...

ANIMAL HEALTH : MEMBER STATES URGED TO STEP UP PROTECTION MEASURES AGAINST H5N1.
February 23, 2007... A Commission Decision approving protection and surveillance measures and buffer zones set up in the UK following the recent outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in Suffolk was endorsed on 6 February by the Member States in the...

GMOS : MINISTERS PUT THE BALL BACK IN THE COMMISSION'S COURT.(Brief article)
February 23, 2007... EU environment ministers, meeting in Brussels on 20 February, once again put the ball in the European Commission's court by voting, with a qualified majority, against its proposal to remove the so-called national safeguard clause, which allows...

EU/CHINA : NO ANTI-DUMPING MEASURES IN SIGHT AGAINST CHINESE STRAWBERRIES.
February 23, 2007... Concluding in favour of the interests of European importers, the European Commission is on the point of rejecting the complaint by Polish producers of frozen strawberries who are demanding anti-dumping measures against their Chinese...

FISHERIES POLICY : PARLIAMENT CALLS FOR TIGHTER CONTROL OF ILLEGAL FISHING.
February 23, 2007... The European Union needs to double its efforts to implement the 15 actions listed in the action plan adopted in 2002 in order to put a stop to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, said the European Parliament, which on 15 February...

AGRICULTURAL POLICY : PARLIAMENT REJECTSVOLUNTARY MODULATION - AGAIN.
February 23, 2007... The European Parliament, on 14 February, once again rejected the European Commission's proposal for a scheme which would allow member states to transfer 20%,ain addition to the 5% compulsory modulation, of direct payments (the first pillar of...

FISHING QUOTAS : REDUCTION FOR UK AND IRISH QUOTAS.(Brief article)
February 23, 2007... The European Commission adopted on 15 February a regulation which provides for the reduction of fishing quotas for the UK and Ireland over the period 2007 to 2012. This is in response to overfishing of herring and mackerel quotas during the...

TOMORROW'S AGRICULTURE.
February 23, 2007... This work reviews the new agricultural order, both globally (food situation, new producer countries, international negotiations, etc) and at EU level (reform of the CAP). Pierre Rainelli, a French engineer with INRA (French agricultural...

EU/US/WTO : WASHINGTON SAYS FARM BILL SHOULD SHIFT PRESSURE ONTO EU.
February 23, 2007... Cuts in trade-distorting subsidies contained in the new US Farm Bill should be matched by equally ambitious cuts from the EU in tariffs on agricultural imports, US Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns has told Europolitics. "The EU is very...

WINE MARKET REFORM.
February 23, 2007... At the initiative of EFFAT (European Federation of Trade Unions in the Food, Agriculture and Tourism Sectors), the trade unions in the main European winemaking countries (Italy, Spain, Portugal and France) met on 1st and 2nd February 2007 in...