Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 39: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the bilateral meetings he has had with other EU agriculture Ministers on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7704/11]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Since I assumed office on 9 March last, I have had bilateral meetings with my French and Spanish ministerial colleagues. I also had the opportunity to meet my ministerial colleagues from the 26 other member states at the recent EU Council of Agriculture Ministers meeting in Brussels on 17 March last. The meeting with my French counterpart, Bruno Lemaire, was devoted primarily to the reform of the CAP. We shared common ground on the strategic importance of agriculture in both Ireland and France and for the future of Europe as a whole. We agreed to work together to ensure that the reform of the CAP delivers an ambitious policy, adequately funded to reinforce and develop the strategic importance of agriculture to the EU. We also agreed on a number of important markers in the CAP negotiations, namely: - the distribution of future direct income support within member states should allow for the necessary flexibility of member states to take account of the agricultural and regional conditions which apply to that country; and - any future "greening" of the direct income support schemes should be simple to apply both for farmers and member state administrations and should not entail additional costs for either.

The meeting with my French counterpart also dealt with the MERCOSUR negotiations and the potential difficulties they could pose for the EU beef sector. The contribution which extensive EU beef production can make to the global fight against climate change was discussed and it was agreed that both countries would work together to highlight this.

While my meeting with my Spanish counterpart was devoted largely to fisheries matters, we did have the opportunity to exchange views on the broad parameters of the upcoming CAP negotiations.