European Council Meeting,  Agriculture and Fisheries
Brussels, 23 January 2006
Full document:
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=PRES/06/7&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN

Excerpts

BIOMASS ACTION PLAN

The Council held a fruitful first exchange of views on the agricultural aspects of the Communication from the Commission on the biomass action plan. The presentation of the Action Plan was made by Commissioner Fisher-Boel, responsible for agriculture and rural development, and Piebalgs, responsible for the energy sector. The Council concluded that exploiting biomass offered one of the best means of reducing the Community's dependence on fossil fuels.

As soon as possible the Council would examine the Communication on Biofuels that would be presented next month by the Commission, and which complemented the Action Plan presented today. Before the end of Austria's Presidency, following preparatory work at the appropriate technical level, the Council would continue the discussion begun today.

The main items discussed at Council level can be summarised as follows:

• in general a very large number of delegations welcomed the Action Plan and acknowledged its future positive impact, particularly with regard to securing the Community supplies of renewable energy, reducing the Community's dependency on fossil energies, providing viable alternative agricultural production and rural activities for farmers, improving sustainable development and biodiversity and maintaining rural activities;
• several delegations insisted on the need to keep sufficiently high import tariffs to make the development of Community biomass production possible and to avoid excessive imports of renewable sources of energy such as bio ethanol;
• some delegations stressed the importance of using different types of bio energies, including bio products, bio plastics and animal by-products;
• some delegations expressed their concern regarding possible further certification for sustainable sources of energy, pointing out the fact that it would increase the administrative burden on operators;
• more specifically a few delegations, underlining the insufficient amount of money spent on renewable energy in agriculture, suggested an increase either of the current level of EUR 45/hectare for the "carbon credit" premium and/or an increase in the current maximum eligible area (1,5 million hectares);

Commissioner Fischer-Boel reminded delegations that cross-compliance rules were the only specific requirements to be applied and fulfilled for growing energy crops. Commissioner Piebalgs indicated that with respect to the trade agreements, a balance had to be found between EU's commitments under the World Trade Organisation agreements (WTO) and the necessary impulse to be given to the biomass sector in the Community. He confirmed that all possible sources of renewable energies would be used. It should be recalled that a first assessment of the implementation of the "carbon credit" premium - inter alia, the conditions for eligibility and its level - introduced by the CAP reform in 2003 will be carried out by the Commission at the end of the year.

The Action Plan aims at increasing the use of energy from forestry, agriculture and waste materials, in particular by introducing measures to increase the development of biomass energy from wood, wastes and agricultural crops and by creating market-based incentives for its use and removing barriers to the development of the market.

This initiative constitutes a first, coordinating step. It includes measures to promote biomass in heating, electricity and transport, and also cross-cutting measures under the Action Plan. It is accompanied by a general impact assessment.

As regards, in particular, cross-cutting measures, the Communication deals with questions relating to energy crops and measures to encourage the supply of such crops in the framework of the reformed CAP.

The Plan announces more than twenty actions; most of them will be implemented from 2006 onwards. For transport bio fuels, they include promotion of "bio fuels obligations", through which suppliers include a minimum proportion of bio fuels in the fuel they place on the market. In 2006, the Commission will produce a report on the possible revision of the bio fuels Directive.

The reformed Common Agriculture Policy introduced the "energy crop payment", under which a premium of EUR 45 per hectare is available, with a maximum guaranteed area of 1,5 million hectares as the budgetary ceiling (a total of EUR 67,5 million available), for the production of energy crops. This measure, considered as crucial by the Commission was applied to 300 000 hectares in 2004 and 500 000 hectares in 2005.The Commission representative indicated that the possibility of using set-aside land would also be considered. At present set aside is mandatory with exemptions for organic production, as well as non-food and non-feed production. Land under set-aside schemes may be subject to rotation.

FOODSTUFFS QUALITY

The Council took note of the Commission's presentation of the four proposals on foodstuffs quality, including two proposals on organic production and amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 (see press release), one proposal on agricultural products and foodstuffs as traditional specialities guaranteed (TSG) and replacing Council Regulation (EEC) No  2082/92, and one proposal on the protection of geographical indications (GI) and designations of origin (DO) for agricultural products and foodstuffs and replacing Council Regulation (EEC) No  2081/92 (see press release) 2 (5101/06, 5099/06 and 5098/06).

As regards the proposals on GIs, DOs and TSGs, the Council invited the Special Committee on Agriculture to continue its examination of those proposals with a view to reaching agreement at a forthcoming Council meeting, taking into account the deadline of 3 April set in the context of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for implementation of the Panel.

As regards proposals on organic production, the Council invited the Special Committee on Agriculture to begin detailed examination of them.

The original Community legislative framework for organic production, TSGs, GIs and DOs was set up in the early nineties. In the meantime, following legislative changes, enlargement and in particular legal claims lodged by third countries (Australia and the United-States) at the World Trade Organisation as well as technical problems with implementation, the need for an overall change in those Regulations has become apparent.

Comparison of the two proposals on GIs/DOs and TSGs with Council Regulations (EEC) No 2082/92 and 2081/92, shows that the main changes are:

• the introduction of a single document (Article 5(3)(c) 5099/1/06) for applications containing the name, a brief description of the product, specific rules concerning packaging and labelling, a definition of the geographical area from which the agricultural product or foodstuff comes, and proof of the link between the product and its geographical origin; this single document aims at ensuring that key information is published officially before registration in order to allow any operator to exercise his right of objection, and the authorities to guarantee protection for the names registered in each Member State. It will also ensure greater homogeneity and equal treatment for applications; in the case of TSGs, only the restricted product specification (Article 6, 5098/06) need be transmitted to the Commission;
• the possibility for third countries' operators of submitting registration applications directly through the Commission (Article 5(9), 5099/1/06 and Article 7(7), 5098/06);
• to bring Community legislation into line, all provisions relating to equivalence and reciprocity for products from third countries are deleted (former Articles 12 to 12d) in order to allow all names corresponding to geographical areas in third countries to have access to the Community scheme for the protection of GIs; in the same spirit the draft proposal allows third countries as well as Member States or operators to object directly to a registration proposed by groups of producers (Article 7, 5099/1/06).

The two proposals on organic production and amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91, include new definitions and objectives which aim at avoiding misleading labelling for consumers and rules allowing a certain degree of flexibility in the production rules for Member States to take account of local climatic, development and specific production conditions. While excluding a compulsory EU logo for organic products for the time being, the proposals also provide for the use of a simple standardised text EU-ORGANIC in cases where the product does not bear the EU logo (Articles 18 and 19 of the draft). Products containing GMOs cannot be labelled as organic, except if the GMO content is due to accidental contamination and does not exceed 0,9%. The proposal also aims at developing permanent import rules based on direct access for fully compliant or equivalent products.