EC FARM MINISTERS MEETING UNLIKELY NEXT WEEK
A meeting of European Community (EC)
farm ministers is unlikely to be held next week following the
ministers' failure to agree a 1987/88 farm price package
yesterday, an EC Commission spokesman said.
    However, he said he could not rule out such a meeting
altogether, noting the decision is one for Belgium, which
currently holds the presidency of the EC council of ministers.
    The farm ministers could also meet in parallel with the
meeting of EC heads of government in Brussels on June 29 and
30, diplomats noted.
    The ministers ended their three-day meeting in Luxembourg
still split on the question of an oils and fats tax and with
West Germany saying it would use its veto on two other key
aspects of EC Commission proposals, the actual common price
changes and a revision of the "green money" system.
    The Commission spokesman said an announcement is likely to
appear in the EC's Official Journal within a few days giving
notice of the Commission's intention to take emergency measures
from July 1 should ministers fail to reach an accord.
    However, Commission sources said this notice would not
detail the measures to be taken, which, they said, might be
considered by the Commission at its regular weekly meeting next
Wednesday.
    The Commission published a declaration by EC Farm
Commissioner Frans Andriessen made in Luxembourg early
yesterday at the end of the agriculture ministers' meeting.
    In it, Andriessen said there was now a serious threat to
the functioning of the Common Agricultural Policy.
    Andriessen added ,"The Commission...Will take the measures
which are necessary, not only for the temporary management of
the markets, but also for a healthy finance policy."
    "This means that the protective measures we are going to
apply will necessarily have, in the context of our own powers,
a dynamic character," he said.
 REUTER
