Following a detailed examination, the Presidency noted that a qualified majority of delegations was in favour of extending the present sugar regime for five marketing years (2001/2002 to 2005/2006), with a number of changes resulting from the day's discussions on the basis of the documents submitted by the Presidency; agreed that the proceedings should be finalised later, once the European Parliament had delivered its Opinion, on the basis of the majority approach described above; took the view that the proposal for the least-developed countries (LDC) should be re-examined as regards the sugar sector to bring it into line with that approach.
The Commission upheld its proposal, on which the Opinion of the European Parliament is awaited.
�