EC holds firm on sugar reforms
Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan had a trilateral meeting with EU Farm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel and the current Council of Ministers president, Britain’s Margaret Beckett, and also took part in a meeting of the blocking minority of which Ireland is a member.
She earlier said that while the need for reform is acknowledged, she considered the current proposals unbalanced and unacceptable. They go beyond the principles of previous CAP reforms and could lead to drastic consequences for the sugar beet industry in a number of member states, including Ireland.
Ms Coughlan said she had expressed her serious concerns to Ms Fischer Boel.
She said it would be better to wait for outcome of the WTO meeting in December before trying to conclude an agreement.
The Commission and the British presidency are pressing to have a decision on the reforms taken at the November Council meeting, but it was reported last night that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconia plans to raise his concerns about the proposals at an informal meeting of EU leaders at Hampton Court in England later this week.
IFA Sugar Beet chairman Jim O’Regan said he was disappointed there had been no improvement on the proposed beet price at the Council of Ministers meeting. He re-iterated his call for a viable beet price for the Irish industry.
He urged Ms Coughlan to ensure money from the restructuring fund goes to beet processors, not Greencore.
Speaking in an adjournment debate in the Dáil last night, Labour Party TD Joe Sherlock said the current EU proposals, if agreed, would signal the demise of the Irish sugar industry and mean the loss of 1,000 jobs.
In EU terms, the Irish sugar quota is small at just over 1% of the total EU quota. But the industry is important to Ireland, with more than 3,700 farmers grow sugar beet under contract to Irish Sugar and receive about €75 million annually for the crop.
“While we accept that some change to the regime is inevitable, the European Commission proposals are too radical. The level of price cuts proposed for sugar and sugar beet are very severe. The impact of the current reform proposals will result in the phasing out of sugar production in this country,” he said.
He appreciated the negotiations are difficult.
But if they result in the loss of a viable industry, with no Irish Sugar producing facility, that will have untold consequences and will leave the country to the mercy of European sugar interests, he said.
