EC OFFICIALS PLAN NEW EFFORT ON FARM PRICE TALKS
European Community (EC) leaders hope
to make a new attempt to inject fresh urgency into talks on
reforming the bloc's controversial farm policy when EC
agriculture ministers meet for a third day of discussions here
this morning.
    Community officials said farm commissioner Frans Andriessen
met Belgian minister Paul de Keersmaeker late last night to
plan a new initiative.
    Both Andriessen and de Keersmaeker, who currently chairs EC
farm ministers' meetings, were said to be disappointed by the
lack of progress in the talks so far this week.
    The bloc's executive Commission has proposed a tough
package involving effective cuts of upwards of 10 pct in
farmers' returns for many crops this year.
    Ministers were due to have adopted a package by April 1 but
are only this week getting down to serious negotiations.
    Yesterday, they discussed plans to cut cereals prices by
2.5 pct, and reduce farmers' rights to sell surpluses to EC
stores, to cut prices for fruit and vegetables by larger
margins, and to impose a tax on EC-produced and imported
oilseeds, a proposal which would be likely to sour EC trade
relations with the United States.
    Diplomatic sources said ministers, all of whom are opposed
to at least one of these propositions, maintained entrenched
positions yesterday, making the task of de Keersmaeker in
steering his colleagues towards a compromise a daunting one.
    They said he could also be treading a minefield if he
sought to breach the divide between his fellow ministers over
plans to change the system by which EC farm prices, expressed
in a notional common currency, are translated into the
currencies of member states.
    West German minister Ignaz Kiechle indicated yesterday he
would veto the adoption of Commission proposals in this area,
saying they would unfairly affect farmers in strong currency
nations.
    The Belgian sources said de Keersmaeker may today present a
paper to his colleagues which, while not having the status of a
compromise proposal, would attempt to narrow their options.
    But diplomats said the philosophical gap between ministers
like Kiechle, with his commitment to maintaining traditional
rural patterns, and others who see runaway farm spending as
unacceptable economically, is likely to prove extremely
difficult to bridge.
    They agreed with EC farmers' union association president
Hans Kjeldsen who said yesterday that an agreement in June
appeared to be the best that could be hoped for.
 Reuter
