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THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE said that, at the meeting of the Agriculture Council on 23/24 October, the German Minister, with support from a number of other Member States, had strongly criticised the decision of the Commission to determine the Community's 1989 cereal harvest at 160.5 million tonnes which, under the 1988 agreement on agricutural stabilisers, was just sufficient to trigger an automatic 3 per cent cut in cereals support prices for 1990. This was ironic, since Germany had Previously been among the Member States pressing for the Commission to make the determination at an early stage, when the degree of uncertainty was necessarily greater. Under the 1988

greement a further consequence of the harvest exceeding 160

rion tonnes should be an additional levy on cereals prostuction of 0.3 per cent, but the Commission had proposed that this should be ignored on de minimis grounds, even though the loss to the Community's budget would be some 50 million ECU. He had been isolated in opposing this departure from the 1988 decision. He had, however, supported a proposal put forward by the Greek Minister that would result in the missing levy being recovered at a later date. During the same meeting, there had been further discussion of the Commission's proposal to limit Community-finance payments to livestock farmers in

disadvantaged a maximum number of livestock per farm.

United Kingdom, Du

The effect of such Dimit would be virtually confined to the

farms tended to be larger than those in other Member States His opposition to the proposal had been supported, as a matter of principle, by the Dutch Minister and had received some modest help from the French Presidency. The Irish Agriculture Cssioner, on the other hand, appeared to assume that any UK fars above the given size were owned by rich landlords. The argument would be continued during the informal meeting of Agriculture Ministers, commencing on 29

October.

that

In a brief discussion it was noted that a considerable number of farmers in both Scotland and Wales would be affected by the limitation, if it were agreed. The United Kingdom had had some success in the past in resisting discriminatory measures of this sort, and it would be essential to contin to do so. The economy of even large farms in hill areas was very fragile. The present policy of the Commission was air

at a significant switch in support towards smaller farms, which would benefit Member States such as Ireland, Greece and Ita and disadvantage the United Kingdom.

The Cabinet

Took note.

Cabinet Office

26 October 1989

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