Agriculture and Fisheries Council

The Council of Agriculture and Fisheries ( engl. Agriculture and Fisheries Council) is a formation of the Council of the European Union, which includes the Commissioner for Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers of the Member States. This Council configuration meets once a month in Brussels or Luxembourg, their meetings are prepared by the Special Committee on Agriculture. The members of the European Commission responsible for the departments of Agriculture and Rural Development, Fisheries and maritime affairs and consumer protection may participate in the meetings. However, they have no voting rights.

Mainly, the Council of Agriculture and Fisheries with the regulation of the markets, the organization of production and establishing the resources available, improving horizontal agricultural structures and rural development is concerned.

Both the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP ) and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) were reformed in recent years. In the CAP, this concerns the single farm payment, which is now used as a budgetary tool. Livestock, crops and milk are decoupled from production and maintenance of the premium is subject to compliance with certain criteria and environmental and animal welfare.

The Council also decides on the budget for the financing of measures that are involved in this policy area. Until entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty in late 2009 he was solely responsible for this, since the European Parliament in budgetary matters has an equal say.

Responsibility and criticism

The responsibilities of the Committee are defined in a self-description as:

  • Common Agricultural Policy ( CAP),
  • Internal market legislation,
  • Forestry,
  • Organic farming,
  • Quality and safety of food and feed
  • And harmonization of the rules for veterinary, phytosanitary, animal feed, seed and pesticides.

The Council has been criticized in several cases, because he has made ​​decisions that had not fallen in this field of competence.

  • The bugging,
  • Patentability of computer-implemented inventions, and more recently
  • The anti-piracy agreement ACTA.
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