EU agriculture ministers meet in Luxembourg today in an attempt to agree a major reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. The Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, predicted yesterday that the negotiations would be tough, but expressed confidence that a deal would be agreed by the end of this week.
"It is decision time. The negotiations will be tough and we have a few days' and nights' hard work ahead of us. But an agreement can be reached. Our agricultural policy needs reform, and we need it now."
At the heart of Mr Fischler's reform plan, which ministers have been considering for almost a year, is a proposal to break the link between farm subsidies and production. The payments would be linked instead to environmental, food safety and animal welfare standards.
Some member-states fear that this "decoupling" of subsidies from production will reduce farmers' incomes, and Mr Fischler has indicated that some areas could be exempted from decoupling. The commissioner insisted yesterday, however, that the reform package must achieve its central aims of reducing overproduction, improving food quality and farm standards and promoting other forms of rural development.
"I want to get as many of the member-states as possible on board the reform boat. The Commission is willing to listen to the member-states' legitimate concerns, but I do not want to see lame compromises that lead to more and not less red tape, continue to encourage farmers to overproduce and expect the taxpayer to foot the bill," he said.
The reform is partly motivated by the EU's commitment to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to phase out subsidies to production which other WTO members regard as offering European farmers an unfair competitive advantage.
Developing countries complain that the EU dumps surplus food onto markets in poor countries, making it impossible for indigenous farmers to compete.
Germany, Britain, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands are the strongest advocates of reform, with France, Ireland and some Mediterranean countries resisting change.
Greece, which holds the EU presidency, will present a compromise proposal at the start of today's meeting, which is described by officials as "open-ended". If the ministers fail to agree this week, they will meet again before the end of this month in a final push for agreement.
Germany's chancellor Mr Gerhard Schröder and French president Mr Jacques Chirac said the reforms could not affect a deal agreed last October which limits EU spending on agriculture.