EU Council approval seals fate of beet industry

NO formal vote was taken as the Council of EU agriculture ministers agreed last week what IFA has described as the end of beet production in Ireland.

Instead, the UK’s Agriculture Minister, Margaret Beckett declared, after speaking to each Minister, that a qualified majority was achievable in early 2006.

The European Commission will now start preparing the legal text. Only when that has been finalised, and the European Parliament has given its opinion in January 2006, can the Council adopt the sugar regime in its final form.