Agriculture and Fisheries Council

 

When: 28/11/2012 - 29/11/2012
Where: Justus Lipsius building, Brussels, Belgium
Topic: Agriculture, fisheries and food
Organiser: Council of the EU

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Agricultural items will be discussed on the first day and part of the second day, and fisheries items on the second day of this Council meeting.

The Council will aim to agree a partial general approach on the key parts of the legislative package for the reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP), namely the draft regulations on:

• direct payments to farmers under support schemes in the framework of the CAP;
• support for rural development;
• a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products (Single CMO regulation);
• the financing, management and monitoring of the CAP.

As the decision on the financial provisions of these regulations depends on the outcome of the current negotiations on the next multi-annual financial framework, the general approach will not cover those provisions and therefore only be partial.

The Council will also address the issue of a proposal to authorise, under certain conditions, the use of lactic acid to reduce microbiological surface contamination of bovine carcasses and meat. Should there be no majority within the Council, neither to adopt nor to reject the proposal, the Commission will be free to adopt it, after hearing the opinion of the European Parliament.

As regards fisheries items, the Council will try to reach a political agreement on a regulation fixing for 2013 and 2014 the fishing opportunities for EU vessels for certain deep-sea stocks. Fishing for deep-sea species, which are slow-growing and long-lived and therefore particularly vulnerable, has been regulated by the EU since 2003. The fishing opportunities for deep-sea species are decided on a bi-annual basis, in line with the intervals at which scientific stock assessments are carried out.

Moreover, the Council will be briefed by the Commission about the results of the first round of the annual consultations between the EU and Norway under their bilateral fisheries agreement. The two main issues in these consultations are the establishment of the total allowable catches (TACs) for jointly managed stocks in the North Sea and the reciprocal exchanges of quotas.

A presidency briefing, agenda and background note will be published on the Council website closer to the date of the meeting.

• Presidency of the Council of the EU website
• Council website