Sugar reforms to be adopted next year

THE formal legal texts giving effect to the EU sugar reform agreement will be adopted by the Council of Ministers early next year after the opinion of the European Parliament has been received, Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan has disclosed.

She told the Dáil in a written reply that the European Commission will then come forward with proposals for detailed implementing regulations. “It is my intention to examine all aspects of the operation of the restructuring scheme at that stage,” she said.

Ms Coughlan said the package agreed includes a voluntary restructuring scheme to encourage sugar factory closures and the renunciation of sugar quota.