The Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) reform and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) reform will be the focal points of the two day meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council, which will be held in Brussels on 24-25 September 2012. The ministers will give special attention to the draft Rural Development Regulation, the draft Regulation on the common organisation of the markets in agricultural products and the draft Regulation for the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund.

The first day of the Council will be devoted to Agriculture issues. Ministers will hold two orientation debates on aspects relating to the Commission's CAP Reform proposals, based on questions asked by the Presidency. The first relates to the proposed changes to the system of less-favoured areas within the Rural Development Regulation. The second concerns the various market instruments foreseen in the proposed Single Common Market Organization (CMO) Regulation.

The Rural Development regulation covers a framework of measures available, so that Member States or regions can then design and co-finance their own multi-annual programmes which are adapted to national or regional specificities. One element in the rural development framework concerns specific support for farmers in less favoured areas (LFAs), where funds are used to compensate farmers for the more difficult production conditions that they face. The Commission proposals foresee a revision to the definitions (delimitation of areas with significant constraints), partly in response to doubts raised by the Court of Auditors in 2003 that the wide range of criteria used to define some categories of less favoured areas might be a source of unequal treatment. The Presidency has tabled three questions related to these proposed changes. Firstly, whether flexibility should be an integral element of "fine tuning", i.e. of the methods used to exclude areas where a natural constraint has been documented but has been overcome by investments (e.g. irrigation in dry areas) or by economic activities (e.g. wine production on stony soils); Secondly, whether those Member States that require more time to complete the delimitation using the new biophysical criteria proposed by the Commission should be given until the end of 2015 to complete the exercise (instead of 2014 in the Commission proposal). Finally, what further adjustments do Member States consider necessary to pave the way towards a political agreement on this matter.

The Single CMO proposal put forward by the Commission provides for the continuation of a series of market management measures (public intervention, private storage, exceptional measures and export refunds) aiming to function as a safety net. The objective is to provide policy instruments to respond to excessive price volatility and market disturbances as well as to balance the supply chain. Some Member States would be in favour of further measures, in particular a mechanism to update the level of the reference prices which serve as a trigger for these measures. However, the Commission opposes further changes, underlining amongst other things that such adjustments may have implications under WTO rules. Council discussion will focus on two questions put forward by the Presidency, namely whether the Commission proposal strikes the right balance to provide an effective safety net, and whether the update of reference prices would increase the effectiveness of the safety net – and in which sector and under what conditions.

Any other business

Agriculture issues

• Further to a request by the Hungarian delegation, Member States will discuss the consequences of severe drought in some regions of the EU and the world.

• Ministers will discuss the situation of the dairy market, further to a request by the Spanish delegation, supported by the Lithuanian and Polish delegations.

• The Greek delegation also requested that participants should discuss the crisis situation in the animal husbandry due to feeding stuff prices and the economic crisis.

On Tuesday, September 25, 2012, the EU Fisheries Ministers will hold an orientation debate on the European Commission’s Proposal for the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. The debate will be structured on questions tabled by the Presidency in order to steer and accelerate the work of the preparatory bodies on the proposal. The purpose is to reach a partial general approach at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council in October this year.

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