The EU Agriculture Council meeting will start at 11.00 on Wednesday 26 September. On sugar, the Council should adopt by a qualified majority a regulation (9147/07) amending the scheme for restructuring the EU sugar industry. Certain points put to delegations in July have been taken into account in the final text; these include the principle of voluntary restructuring, a two-phase approach to restructuring applications in 2008/2009 and a final reduction in the quota which takes account of the restructuring effort already made. The Commission hopes that the amendments will free up approximately 3,8 million tonnes of sugar quota in addition to the 2,2 million tonnes already renounced. If insufficient quota is renounced by 2010, the Commission also proposes that the level of compulsory reduction should vary in the light of the number of quotas which each Member State gave up under the restructuring scheme. For more information, see the Council briefing note here and here.
Sep 25
