As we all know, the Agenda 2000 agreement was designed to run until 2006 but it seems it is being thrown out the window without any consultation with political or farming representatives. The Fischler announcement had long been flagged as a review of Agenda 2000 which one might have assumed would be an assessment of the progress of the implementation of the Berlin agreement and its effects on the agriculture industry in member states. Instead, it seems Franz Fischler seems intent on terminating Agenda 2000, throwing out what remains to be implemented in that agreement and proceeding to reform CAP overnight. I sympathise with the question being raised by many farm leaders recently. They asked if the European Commission can be trusted in relation to the implementation of agreements signed by Agriculture Ministers as with that in Berlin in 1999. Whatever about not being able to trust the Commission in the future, the confidence of Irish farmers in the EU has been severely dented by the nature of the announcement by the Commissioner, Franz Fischler.