AGRICULTURE Minister Jack Cunningham faced angry farmers yesterday as they picketed a meeting of European farm ministers at a hotel in Newcastle.
They arrived under police escort, but as soon as he got off the bus, Cunningham set off to confront a group of about 100 protesters who kept up a loud chant of ''Lift the beef ban''.
As he exhorted the crowd to keep calm, Cunningham assured them: ''There is nothing you can advise us to do that we are not doing already to get the ban lifted. The Prime Minister and the whole Government is working to get it lifted.''
He refused, however, to be drawn on a target date. ''If I said next month and we didn't get it through, you would be disappointed. If you can think of something we are not doing that we should be doing, please tell us.''
One farmer demanded that he should rescind the ban on beef on the bone which he described as a farce. Cunningham replied that 26 people had died from CJD and he would only lift that ban once he got the all-clear from advisers.
English NFU president Ben Gill, who led yesterday's demonstration, had a brief meeting with the ministers. He said he had pushed EU Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler hard on the question of approval of the date-based export scheme by the autumn. This would allow cattle born after August 1996 to qualify for export.
''I see no reason why we should not have the ban lifted by then and we must continue to lobby for that,'' he said.
German farm Minister Jochen Borchert said he would require to see detailed proposals before he could make any comment.
At the meeting itself, the prospect of European Union member states being given more power to develop their own policies for supporting livestock farmers in fragile areas - such as Scotland's hills and uplands - emerged.
The UK submitted a paper which emphasised that, despite substantial subsidies to livestock producers in Less Favoured Areas, their incomes were chronically low. Most were dependent on subsidy and, in some cases, the subsidy exceeded net income.
After the meeting Cunningham said there was agreement on the need to provide a secure, viable and sustainable future for LFA livestock farmers, while trying to protect and enhance fragile ecosystems.
Opinion was divided on how market support regimes might
be adjusted to meet social and
environmental objectives in rural areas.
However, it was acknowledged that policies must take full account of the role of agriculture, not just in producing food, but also in contributing to the countryside and the rural economy.
Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler indicated that the introduction of the euro would lead to a re-writing of the agri-monetary compensation scheme used to shield member states from substantial revaluations of their currency and support payments.
The new system will be required to adopt a twin-track approach to meet the needs of those states inside the new monetary system and those who have opted to stand back.
For those countries which adopt the euro, a one-off adjustment will be required from January 1, 1999. For the others, there should be a less cumbersome mechanism than the present system, Fischler said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article