High security in place for EU farm ministers meeting
Farm ministers from each of the 25 member states in the enlarged EU as well as ministers from Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey will take part in the meeting which Agriculture and Food Minister Joe Walsh will host as the current council president.
Security will also be tight when the ministers visit Garnish Island in West Cork today as part of what will be the first EU Council meeting in which the ten new states will participate as full members. Armed detectives will back up uniformed gardaí in protecting the ministers during their stay. Much of the security operation will centre on the Hotel Europe, where the council will meet.
Hosting the council is a major logistical challenge for the Department of Agriculture and Food, whose staff have been working on the preparations for months.
As the ministers arrived in Killarney yesterday, Mr Walsh said he was looking forward to welcoming his colleagues and three EU Commissioners to Kerry and West Cork.
The question as to how to communicate Common Agricultural Policy reform and trade concessions against the background of the WTO negotiations will be a key issue for talks.
Mr Walsh said this topic was important given the failure to bring home to the WTO partners the significance of the reforms of the CAP and the value, or potential value, of the trade concessions made by the EU, especially for developing countries. A working document prepared by the Irish Presidency will form the basis of the discussion. “This will be a historic occasion and I am sure the more relaxed atmosphere will allow us to have useful discussion on a topic, which is of immediate relevance, especially in this phase of the WTO negotiations.”
