Ministers held an exchange of views following a presentation by the Commission of the proposal for a regulation laying down specific measures for agriculture in the outermost regions of the Union. The Commission also presented the first report on the effects of the 2006 reform of the Programme of Options Specifically Relating to Remoteness and Insularity (POSEI) regime.
Some delegation noted the importance of these measures for the regions concerned and questioned the legal basis of the Commission proposal. The Special Agriculture Committee will work on this subject before the proposal is re-presented to ministers.
The Commission proposes a reshaping of the Regulation (EC) 247/2006 laying down specific measures for agriculture in the outermost regions of the Union in order to bring it into conformity with the Lisbon Treaty. The original text has also been cleaned up and updated to include the most recent changes to the common market organisations (CMOs).
Moreover, two changes in the new text come from recommendations included in the report on the implementation of the reform of the POSEI regime presented during this session:
Since 1991, agriculture in the outermost regions of the EU has benefited from POSEI, the aim of which is to allow specific measures for the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy that take into consideration the geographical and economic disadvantages of these regions. The POSEI agricultural measures are divided into two main categories: the first concerns the supply of products which are essential for human consumption, for processing or as agricultural inputs. The second concerns specific support measures for the production and marketing of local agricultural products.