Europe Agri articles from June 2008

Europe Agri archives from June 2008

LISBON TREATY : AGRICULTURE COMES FULLY UNDER CO-DECISION, SAY MEPS.
June 16, 2008... If the new Lisbon Treaty enters into force, all Common Agricultural Policy legislation will come under co-decision between the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers, states the EP's Agriculture Committee in a recent opinion...

FOOD PRICES : BIOFUELS SINGLED OUT AT FAO SUMMIT DEBATE.
June 16, 2008... The controversy over biofuels and agricultural subsidies dominated the opening of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) summit, on 3 June in Rome, where UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pointed out that food production had...

UN/BIODIVERSITY : CONFERENCE AGREES ON NEED TO SHARE BENEFITS OF GENETIC RESOURCES.
June 16, 2008... The United Nations conference on biodiversity ended with success, according to governmental leaders, but ecology NGOs regret that more concrete results were not obtained. "It's a real success," said German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel,...

AGRICULTURE : FOES AND SUPPORTERS SPEAK OUT ON TOLERANCE OF UNAUTHORISED GMOS.
June 16, 2008... While environmental organisations acknowledge that European stockfarmers are experiencing a "very serious crisis" due to soaring feed prices, they reject the idea of easing EU rules on genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The biotechnology...

AGRICULTURE : MILK PRODUCERS' STRIKE SPILLS ACROSS EUROPE.
June 16, 2008... Milk producers from a number of European countries refused to deliver their products, on 28 May, joining a strike launched in Germany the day before. The strike is in protest over low prices. The movement was initiated in Germany by the local...

NEW AGRICULTURAL DENOMINATIONS.(Brief article)
June 16, 2008... The European Commission added, on 30 May, three denominations for agricultural products to the list of Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI). The products added are: Miod wrzosowy z Borow...

BIRD FLU CONFIRMED IN UK.
June 16, 2008... The UK authorities have informed the European Commission of an outbreak of avian influenza on a poultry farm near Banbury in Oxfordshire, noting that they have immediately applied the necessary control measures laid down under EU legislation....

AGRICULTURAL POLICY : CAP HEALTH CHECK ATTRACTS CRITICISM AT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT.
June 16, 2008... The European Commission's responses to the climate change challenge and agricultural market instability are inadequate, whereas new support models for farmers have yet to be defined, said MEPs and experts at a hearing on the Common Agricultural...

FISHERIES POLICY : CATCH RESTRICTION MEASURES TO PREVENT STOCK DEPLETION.
June 16, 2008... With 88% of EU fish stocks overexploited - compared to an average of 25% globally - it is urgent to carry out a fundamental review of fisheries management schemes for 2009, concludes the European Commission. In spite of the efforts already...

FISHERIES POLICY : COMMISSION PROPOSES BETTER TARGETING OF TECHNICAL MEASURES.
June 16, 2008... Technical measures which, aside from the setting of total allowable catches (TACs), aim to favour the conservation of fish stocks must respond to common principles, but be modulated according to the specific characteristics of the different...

ECONOMIC POLICY : COMMISSION'S RESPONSE ON PRICES DEEMED INSUFFICIENT.
June 16, 2008... Deep disappointment and counter-proposals: the future French Presidency of the Council considers the European Commission's response to the surge in oil prices to be insufficient, to say the least. Although the final content of the Commission's...

CONCLUSIONS ON GMOS IN FRANCE'S FAVOUR.(Brief article)
June 16, 2008... The advocate-general of the EU Court of Justice handed down, on 5 June, conclusions which are very favourable to France in a conflict which pits it against the European Commission, for failure to transpose the directive on the dissemination of...

BIOTECHNOLOGY : CONSENSUS REACHED ON REVISING GMO LEGISLATION.
June 16, 2008... To break the political impasse that has existed on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for the last decade, most of the European Union member states support the idea of adapting procedures for the approval of new transgenics and marketing...

ANIMAL HEALTH : EP WORRIED ABOUT FINANCING OF ANIMAL HEALTH STRATEGY.
June 16, 2008... MEPs recently adopted, by a strong majority, a report by Janusz Wojciechowski (UEN, Poland), highly in favour of the new animal health strategy proposed by the European Commission. They specify, however, that an increase in the current...

EU/US/WTO : EU APPEALS WTO RULING OVER BEEF HORMONE BAN.
June 16, 2008... While in a delicate position regarding its disagreement, since 1999, with the United States and Canada on hormone-treated beef, the European Union decided, on 29 May, not to give in. It appealed a March ruling by the World Trade Organisation,...

EU/UN : EU TO STAND FIRM ON WHALING BAN.(Brief article)
June 16, 2008... The European Union will continue to defend the total ban on whaling during the sixtieth meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), which will take place in Santiago de Chile, from 26 to 30 June. EU environment ministers, gathered in...

GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS : FAO URGES IMMEDIATE INTERNATIONAL ACTION.
June 16, 2008... In a policy document prepared for the High-Level Conference on World Food Security, from 3 to 5 June in Rome (see article page 18), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) urges the international community to take immediate...

FEASIBILITY STUDY ON FRUIT AND VEG MARKET.
June 16, 2008... The European Commission launched, on 28 May, a call for tender for a Feasibility study on the setting up of a platform for data and information exchange for the European fruit and vegetable market'. In particular, the feasibility study will...

FISHERMEN VENT THEIR ANGER.(Brief article)
June 16, 2008... They are obviously not the only ones hit hard by the surge in oil prices. But pushed beyond their limits after weeks of strikes, several hundred fishermen, mostly French and Italian, staged a demonstration in Brussels, on 4 June, calling on the...

FOODSTUFFS : FOOD PRICES GROW BY DOUBLE INFLATION.
June 16, 2008... Since the end of 2006, but particularly since July 2007, food prices in the EU have increased more rapidly than overall inflation. In April 2008, the annual increase in food prices in the EU was 7.1%, compared with 3.6% for overall inflation,...

FISHERIES AIDS : FOUR MEMBER STATES CONSIDER HELPING FISHERMEN.
June 16, 2008... Demonstrations by European fishermen faced with an increase in diesel prices are becoming more numerous and the governments of four member states - Spain, France, Italy and Portugal - say they are ready to adopt emergency measures. The...

FISHERIES AIDS : FRANCE ORDERED TO RECOVER ILLEGAL AID.
June 16, 2008... The European Commission has ordered France to recover at least 65 million in aid granted in 2006 as loans to a fund set up to help fishermen cope with higher fuel costs, confirmed a Commission spokesperson, on 29 May. In 2006, Paris set up...

DOHA ROUND : GAP BETWEEN DEVELOPED AND EMERGING COUNTRIES REMAINS.
June 16, 2008... Differences between developed economies and emerging countries engaged in the Doha Round of international trade talks looked wider than ever during an informal ministerial meeting, on 5 June, at the OECD in Paris, ahead of critical talks...

HLG ON AGROFOOD INDUSTRY.(Brief article)
June 16, 2008... The first meeting of the High-Level Group on the competitiveness of the agrofood industry took place on 12 June in Brussels, to examine the following subjects: competitiveness, needs for innovation and research and development, support for...

ANIMAL HEALTH : HORSES TO GET PASSPORT AND MATCHING CHIP.
June 16, 2008... All equidae will now have to acquire their individual passports within six months after their birth and these animals will be tagged with an electronic chip corresponding to their passport. The proposal aims to modernise the identification...

EU/US : MEMBER STATE EXPERTS EN MASSE REJECT CHLORINATED CHICKEN.
June 16, 2008... The experts from the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health rejected, without discussion, on 2 June, the European Commission's proposal authorising the use of chlorine baths to decontaminate chicken carcasses. Only the UK chose...

FISHERIES POLICY : MEPS TARGET ILLEGAL AND DEEPWATER FISHING.
June 16, 2008... Measures to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and control measures for deepwater fishing will have to be enhanced, believe MEPs who adopted, on 5 June in the plenary session and by a large majority, reports presented on...

RENEWABLE ENERGY : MEP TURMES UNDER FIRE OVER REJECTION OF BIOFUELS.
June 16, 2008... Claude Turmes (Greens-EFA, Luxembourg), rapporteur on the European Commission's January 2008 proposal for renewable energy, is under fire over his central proposal of abandoning of the 10% binding biofuels target for transport. The rapporteur...

ENVIRONMENT COUNCIL : MINISTERS SEEK TO SOLVE IMPASSE OVER GMOS.
June 16, 2008... The application of Community rules on the evaluation and authorisation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has become problematical as the gap between procedures and political realities widens with each dossier submitted to the Council by...

PROJECT ON PDOS AND PGIS.(protected designations of origin )(protected geographical indications )(Brief article)
June 16, 2008... The European Commission launched, on 11 June, a call for tender for a project on the value of agricultural production under the EU schemes for protected designations of origin (PDO) and protected geographical indications (PGI). The aim of this...

ANIMAL PRODUCTS : RULES ON ANIMAL BY-PRODUCTS TO BE REVISED.(Brief article)
June 16, 2008... The European Union equipped itself, at the beginning of the decade, with very strict legislation for the whole animal sector following the mad cow disease and dioxin crises and various epidemics. It is in particular a question of clearly...

FAO SUMMIT : STEPS PLEDGED AS RIFT OVER AGRICULTURAL MODELS LINGERS.
June 16, 2008... Aid for small farmers in Africa, elimination of trade barriers and development of social protection measures are the guidelines for solving the food crisis set by the United Nations at the Food and Agriculture Organisation global conference on...

EU/US : WASHINGTON SLAMS COMMISSION'S CHLORINATED CHICKEN PROPOSAL.
June 16, 2008... The European Commission's proposal to end a ban on US poultry being sold to EU consumers has been panned by the US administration. The ban was introduced in 1997 because US chickens are washed in chlorine to prepare them for human consumption...

AGRICULTURE : AGREEMENT STILL ELUSIVE ON PLANT PROTECTION PRODUCTS.
June 27, 2008... The Committee of Permanent Representatives of the EU member states (Coreper) failed to reach a political agreement, on 11 June, on the draft regulation on the placing of plant protection products on the market. The Slovenian EU Presidency,...

AGRICULTURE : EXPORT-IMPORT CERTIFICATION SYSTEM TO BE SIMPLIFIED.
June 27, 2008... The vast majority of licence obligations for imports and exports in the agricultural sector will no longer be required and the European Commission's Regulation 514/2008 on the matter will be simplified. On 12 June, the Commission decided to...

AGRICULTURE/FISHERIES : IRISH NO' LEAVES CAP AND CFP OUTSIDE CO-DECISION.
June 27, 2008... The Lisbon Treaty will in principle make the European Union's agriculture (CAP) and fisheries (CFP) policies more democratic by bringing them under co-decision. But Ireland's referendum has postponed that hope to a later date. The first...

ANIMAL HEALTH : ANIMAL HEALTH ACTION PLAN: FOUR PILLARS AND 30 MEASURES.
June 27, 2008... Define the EU's priority actions in the field of animal health, streamline its legislative framework, increase prevention and surveillance of sanitary crises and enhance research and innovation in the field. These are the four pillars defined...

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION AND THE EUROPEAN FOOD SAFETY AUTHORITY : AN INFERNAL MERRY-GO-ROUND.
June 27, 2008... The Lisbon Treaty has been rejected by Irish citizens for many reasons, some big and some small: for example, a bureaucracy which has become excessive and paralysing for citizens and even for the biggest businesses. The authorisation of...

BORG: TUNA BAN "IRREVOCABLE".(Brief article)
June 27, 2008... Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg remains unyielding. During a discussion with French and Italian fishermen, on 23 June in Brussels, he confirmed that the European Commission's decision of 13 June regarding the prohibition of tuna fishing in the...

FISHERIES : COMMISSION AGREES TO PRINCIPLE OF EMERGENCY AID.
June 27, 2008... Though it was still refusing emergency measures just a few days ago, the European Commission announced, on 17 June, that it is considering various options to help the fisheries sector cope with the crisis created by surging diesel fuel prices....

FISHERIES : COMMISSION CLOSES BLUEFIN TUNA FISHERY FOR PURSE SEINERS.
June 27, 2008... The bluefin tuna fishery in the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic was closed from 16 June at 00:00 for purse seiners from Greece, France, Italy, Cyprus and Malta and for Spanish purse seiners from 23 June at 00:00. The European Commission,...

COMMODITIES : COMMODITY YEARBOOK CONFIRMS ALL-ROUND SOARING PRICES.
June 27, 2008... The World Commodity Yearbook for 2008, edited by Professor Philippe Chalmin, confirms the upward trend on commodities markets worldwide. Chalmin, who presented the first ever simultaneous translation of the 662-page volume into English, listed...

COURT ACTION AGAINST SLOVAKIA.(Brief article)
June 27, 2008... The European Commission decided, on 17 June, to refer Slovakia to the EU Court of Justice concerning the country's failure to implement the Commission's decision of 7 June 2006 ordering Slovakia to recover SKK416.5 million (approximately 13...

MULTILATERAL TRADE : DOHA GIVES FRANCE A HEADACHE.
June 27, 2008... The pursuit of the Doha Round multilateral trade negotiations is giving a headache to France, which is worried that the talks will complicate its EU Presidency at the expense of its ambitious bilateral agenda and undermine its ability to defend...

PUBLIC HEALTH : EU ANNOUNCES FREE FRUIT INITIATIVE FOR 26 MILLION SCHOOL KIDS.
June 27, 2008... The idea of distributing fruit in schools in the European Union, launched by the EU agriculture commissioner in May 2007, is expected to become a reality soon. Mariann Fischer Boel, who wants "to give a human face to the Common Agricultural...

EU/US : EU TO INVESTIGATE US BIODIESEL SUBSIDIES.
June 27, 2008... The European biofuels industry welcomed the European Commission's announcement, on 13 June, that it will initiate a joint anti-subsidy and anti-dumping investigation into US biofuels imports. The investigation concerns subsidised B99 biodiesel...

FISHERIES POLICY : FISHERIES COMES TO FORE AS A PRIORITY.
June 27, 2008... The EU presidency of the latter half of the year, which traditionally adopts the annual decisions on fishing total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas, will be even busier this year as regards legislation, as the French EU Presidency wants to...

CONSUMPTION : HOUSEHOLDS SPEND MOST ON HOUSING AND FOOD.
June 27, 2008... A third of household expenditure in the EU27 in 2005 went on housing, including utilities and furniture (33.1%), and almost a fifth on food, beverages and tobacco (19.4%). The other half of the expenditure was mainly dedicated to transport...

IMPORT DUTIES ON CEREALS TO STAY.
June 27, 2008... Mariann Fischer Boel, commissioner for agriculture and rural development, announced, on 13 June, that the suspension of cereal import duties will remain in force for the next marketing year - which will end on 30 June 2009 - unless market...

MANDATE TO FIGHT AGAINST ILLEGAL FISHING.(Brief article)
June 27, 2008... The Council gave the European Commission the mandate, on 24 June, to negotiate, in the name of the EU, the development of a legally-binding international instrument on port state measures to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and...

AGRICULTURE COUNCIL : MEMBER STATES SEEK MORE FLEXIBILITY.
June 27, 2008... Total decoupling of direct payments, and additional support for certain sensitive sectors and for crisis management: the debate by EU agriculture ministers on these two aspects of the health check of the Common Agricultural Policy, on 23 June...

FISHERIES AID : MEMBER STATES WANT MORE AID FOR FISHERMEN.
June 27, 2008... Seven member states requested an increase in European Union funding for the fisheries sector, which is faced with serious difficulties as a result of surging diesel fuel prices, at the conclusion of an informal meeting chaired by the Slovenian...

FISHERIES COUNCIL : MINISTERS AGREE TO PENALISE ILLEGAL FISHING.
June 27, 2008... Any vessel engaging in illegal, undeclared and unregulated (IUU) fishing or in the transhipment or landing of IUU fishery products will be placed on a blacklist that will bar its access to European Union ports. The EU's fisheries ministers,...

FISHERIES COUNCIL : MINISTERS HOLD TENSE TALKS ON BLUEFIN TUNA.
June 27, 2008... At the Fisheries Council, meeting in Luxembourg on 24 June, Paris and Rome led the revolt against the decision of 13 June to ban bluefin tuna fishing (see article below), ordering the European Commission to supply them with all the data on...

AGRICULTURE COUNCIL : MINISTERS REACH COMMON APPROACH ON PLANT PROTECTION PRODUCTS.
June 27, 2008... The Union's agriculture ministers reached a common approach at first reading, on 23 June in Luxembourg, on rules for the placing of plant protection products on the market. They confirmed the principle, proposed by the European Commission, of...

AGRICULTURE COUNCIL : NEW AID REGIME FOR COTTON GETS APPROVAL.
June 27, 2008... The EU's agriculture ministers reached an "excellent compromise" on the reform of the cotton aid regime, in the Council on 23 June in Strasbourg, to quote EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel. For her, "no one seemed to be...

FOOD : PARIS SEEKS TOUGHER CUSTOMS CONTROLS ON FOOD.(Brief article)
June 27, 2008... Europe has to ensure better protection for its agri-foodstuffs industry from competition from products manufactured in third countries where hygiene and safety conditions are less stringent than those put in place in the Community in the 1990s....

FISHERIES COUNCIL : PRESIDENCY SECURES TWO POLITICAL AGREEMENTS.
June 27, 2008... The Slovenian EU Presidency will be able to fully conclude its fisheries dossier since after obtaining a unanimous agreement on the illegal fishing regulation (see page 8), it continued its string of successes by obtaining, on 24 June in...

REGULATION ON AQUACULTURE STATISTICS.
June 27, 2008... The Fisheries Council adopted, on 24 June, a regulation which requires member states to communicate statistics on aquaculture to the European Commission. Applicable from 1 January 2009 (first year of reference: 2008), this regulation aims to...

AGRICULTURE COUNCIL : STRATEGIC REFLECTION ON SANITARY CONTROLS ON FOOD IMPORTS.
June 27, 2008... EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou welcomed the memorandum on food imports presented on 23 June by French Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier. However, the member states must in particular do more to ensure the safety of food and feed...

EU/MAURITANIA : THREE MEMBER STATES FAIL TO ACCEPT FISHERIES PROTOCOL.
June 27, 2008... Though time is starting to run out, EU fisheries ministers were unable, during the meeting on 24 June in Luxembourg, to give their definitive approval to the new protocol negotiated by the European Commission with Mauritania in the framework of...