How deal was done
Denis Staunton
Luxembourg
Bleary-eyed but beaming, Dr Franz Fischler was reluctant to claim victory yesterday morning after agriculture ministers agreed to the reform for which he had been fighting for almost a year.
"I think we have achieved our goal of creating a situation where there are no winners or losers - or only winners," he said.
The talks in Luxembourg went on all night, but it was clear by Wednesday evening that agreement was likely after Dr Fischler gave in to a key French demand to drop plans to cut cereal prices.
Agricultural matters are decided by qualified majority so, strictly speaking, the EU could have made a deal without France. However, Dr Fischler had made it clear from the beginning that no reform could be successful without French support.
Besides, the revived Franco-German alliance inspired Berlin to promise not to endorse a deal which did not have the approval of the French Agriculture Minister, Mr Hervé Gaymard, and his agriculturally minded President, Mr Jacques Chirac.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, was in a less secure position than Mr Gaymard as he sought to extract concessions for Irish farmers in the final hours before the agreement was sealed.
Each time Mr Walsh emerged from the meeting, he was greeted by representatives from the IFA, the ICMSA and ICOS, along with an energetic group from Macra na Feirme.
The farmers' representatives were determined to maintain pressure on him until the last available minute, but the Minister almost certainly won as much from Dr Fischler as was possible.
Commission officials told The Irish Times yesterday that cutting butter prices was a "deal-breaker" for the Commissioner, who was adamant that the days of European beef, grain and butter mountains must end.
Some who favoured a more sweeping reform are disappointed that Dr Fischler watered down some of his original proposals, allowing individual countries to introduce partial rather than full decoupling of subsidies from production. The Commission is convinced, however, that farmers will embrace full decoupling before long, preferring to receive a single cheque each year than to engage in complicated paperwork.
Dr Fischler ended his statement after the meeting yesterday with a declaration that his long fight for reform had been worthwhile and had enhanced the reputation of the Commission itself.
"Recent days and weeks have also shown how important it is to have an independent, European-minded Commission which is not afraid of making courageous and sometimes unpopular proposals in the interests of European progress," he said. "Precisely that has been achieved today, and our farmers and sustainable European agriculture have fared best of all."