This article is from page 61 of the 2008-02-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 61 JPG
THE Minister for Agriculture, Mary Coughlan, was in Paris on Valen- tines days courting her French coun- terpart, Minister Michel Barnier, for support on WTO and the CAP Health Check.
Speaking after the meeting, which Coughlan described as being “very useful’, the Irish Minister said that there were many shared views on WTO and both sides had concerns about the way in which the negotia- tions were going.
“The latest negotiation paper from Geneva on agriculture contained a number of areas with which both sides are unhappy we feel that over- all there is a lack of balance,’ she SrnOR
“I have agreed to liaise further in the coming weeks and, in particular, in the run up to next week’s Council of Agriculture Ministers meeting in Brussels.”
The Ministers also discussed devel- opments in the CAP Health Check and had a very useful exchange of views on the positions being taken in Seale
“As with WTO, there was a huge degree of a commonality on the overall approach to the CAP and to its long-term future,” she continued. We discussed various current mar- ket issues and focused in particular on the pigmeat sector. On this, we agreed on the importance of EU sup- ports and on the need to continue and extend these.”
Meanwhile, President of 14,000
member-strong Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, Jackie Cahill, has warned that the Government is facing an extremely embarrassing reverse on the Lisbon Treaty Refer- endum unless a serious and coher- ent effort is mounted immediately to convince the electorate of the merits of a ‘yes’ vote.
Speaking from the Brussels confer- ence of the pan-European dairy farm- ers organisation, the European Milk Board, Mr Cahill said that while he is personally in favour of the Treaty and will be urging a *Yes’ vote, he is “spectacularly unconvinced” by the campaign waged so far by both the Government and the other pro-treaty oy Na Bone
“ICMSA is a farm organisation and SO 1s, quite literally, a grass-roots
movement. Our political antennae are quite sensitive and we’re picking up decidedly mixed messages on the prospects for the passage of the Lis- bon Treaty,” he said.
“IT am personally in favour of the Treaty and am quite optimistic that our National Council will come out in its favour. But I am spectacularly unconvinced by the quality of the ‘Yes’ campaign so far and I’m warn- ing both the Government and the other pro-treaty parties that if they don’t get their act together — and fast — that they are heading for an unmer- ciful shock.”