(The Minister of State for
Agriculture, Fisheries and Food): I represented the
UK at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels on 18
March.
The main item on the agriculture-focused agenda was the reform of
the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post-2020, covering three
legislative files:
- the Regulation on CAP strategic plans,
- the Horizontal Regulation, which is a regulation on the
financing, management and monitoring of the CAP
- the Regulation on common market organisation (CMO) of
agricultural products.
Member States highlighted that further discussions were needed in
areas such as the delivery model, wine labelling and greening. I
intervened to introduce myself and expressed the UK’s interest to
share thinking on our domestic arrangements as they develop.
During the discussion Ministers also debated the outcome of the
congress titled ‘CAP Strategic Plans – Exploring Eco-Climate
Schemes’ which took place in Leeuwarden, Netherlands on 6-8
February 2019, as well as the future of coupled income support in
the CAP.
Council also held an exchange of views on the bioeconomy.
Commissioner Hogan gave an overview of the implementation of the
EU’s new strategy while Member States exchanged examples of areas
where the bioeconomy is being developed in their countries. I
intervened on the item, welcoming the EU Bioeconomy Strategy and
pointing to the UK’s national bioeconomy strategy which was
published in December 2018.
A number of other items were discussed under ‘any other
business’:
- Slovenia informed Council about small-scale coastal fisheries
and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund.
- The Netherlands informed Council about a decision by the
Technical Board of Appeals of the European Patent Office
regarding the possibility to patent the results of classical
plant breeding.
- The Commission provided an update about the outcomes of the
workshops organised by the Commission Task Force for Water and
Agriculture on 27 November 2018 in Sorø, Denmark and on 5-6
February 2019 in Bucharest, Romania.
- Poland provided an update on the potential impact on the meat
market considering new trade challenges. As the discussion
reflected on the possible impact of the UK leaving the EU, I
intervened to set out the reasoning behind our recently published
temporary tariff regime for no-deal.
