Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 215: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if her attention was drawn to the discussions at the expert meeting of the European Commission's advisory committee which took place on 25 October 2006; if after that meeting, in her view, member states' concerns regarding whether or not certain agriculture and rural development related transfers might be legal under the EU law governing state aid have been met; if she shares the view of the German Government that under the current EU Regulation on Rural Development (1698/05) national rural development measures that are not co-founded by the EU are not be permitted under EU rules governing state aid; the implications of this interpretation of EU Regulation 1698/05 for her recently announced conclusion of an agreement with the agriculture social partners; if she is confident that proposals to amend EU Regulation 1698/05 will be successful in order that measures such as those she announced last week at the conclusion of talks with the agriculture social partners might be allowed under EU state aid rules; and the steps she is talking and prepared to take to ensure such an amendment comes into force before she has to fulfil the pledges she has made to the agriculture social partners in relation to the rural development-related package announced last week. [35998/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department was represented at the meeting of the Working Group on State Aids on 25 October at which the Commission's latest proposals for the State Aid Guidelines for the agriculture sector, 2007-2013, were discussed. I, together with several of my EU Ministerial colleagues, had indicated strong opposition to the Commission's original proposals. Following these representations, the Commission published revised proposals on 21 October. The Commission indicated at the meeting on 25 October that it would consider the further comments of Member States before reaching a final decision on the State Aid rules which will apply for 2007-2013.

On the basis of the Commission's latest proposals, I am satisfied with the degree of coherence between the EU Rural Development Regulation and the proposed State Aid Guidelines for the Agriculture sector for the period 2007 to 2013. The position is that any State aided rural development measure introduced by a Member State outside its national Rural Development Programme must be notified separately to the Commission and must demonstrate how the measure fits in with and is coherent with the relevant programme.

National Rural Development Programmes for the period 2007-2013 must be submitted for approval to the Commission. In Ireland's case, the majority of measures agreed under the Partnership process will form an integral part of our Rural Development Plan and will not need to be notified or considered separately under State Aid rules. In the case of measures subject to additional national financing or funded totally by the State, I am satisfied that Ireland will not have any difficulty in demonstrating their coherence with the Rural Development Programme or in complying with the supplementary notification requirement.