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Agriculture and Fisheries Council 22–24 November 2005

The European Union Agriculture and Fisheries Council will meet in Brussels from 22 to 24 November 2005. I will chair the agriculture items with my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ben Bradshaw, in the UK seat. Ben Bradshaw will chair the fisheries items with my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Jim Knight, in the UK seat. The main item of agriculture business is to try to reach a general approach (in effect a political conclusion) on the proposal to reform the Common Agricultural Policy sugar regime. The Council will also consider the proposal for EU Strategic Guidelines on Rural Development, where again, we hope to reach a general approach. The fisheries items on the agenda include Baltic Sea technical conservation measures, where we hope to reach political agreement. There will also be political debates on Baltic Sea total allowable catches and the effort control measures associated with total allowable catches and quotas for 2006. Under any other business, the Fisheries Commissioner will update the Council on EU/ Norway fisheries agreement. There will be an update on avian influenza by the Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection. Poland will inform the Council about a ban by Russia on the import of Polish meat and plants. The Agriculture Commissioner will update the Council on developments in the WTO agricultural negotiations. Estonia, Hungary, Latvia and Lithuania will draw the Council's attention to problems in their transition from the Single Area Payment Scheme (the temporary system of farm payments in place for the new Member States) to the Single Payment Scheme (the system which applies in the rest of the EU). Cyprus will notify the Commission of a state aid scheme designed to compensate farmers for land lost after the Turkish occupation of Northern Cyprus.