Agriculture Minister grilled on sugar
Jim Paice, Minister for Agriculture and Food, will be quizzed by the Lords Agriculture, Fisheries, Environment and Energy EU Sub-Committee on Wednesday 4 July, in the sixth evidence session of their short follow-up inquiry into the EU Sugar Regime.
The Committee will also take advantage of the Minister's appearance before them, in order to question him on other related issues, including CAP reform and the EU's Water Framework Directive.
The Minister is likely to be pressed by the Committee on issues such as:
- the Government's response to evidence heard by the Committee that the beet production quota system should be extended until 2020, when its position is that this should not happen despite the potential negative effect on British farmers;
- how the sugar cane industry can be treated more fairly, an issue of importance to the 400 workers at Tate and Lyle's factory in East London;
- what actions should be taken to help developing countries deal with the impact of EU sugar reform;
- progress in negotiations on reforming the EU's outdated Common Agricultural Policy, including the re-distribution of funding between Member States and the policy of making agricultural payments conditional on environmental protection measures
- why the Government is content that farmers should not be required to apply key water protection legislation in order to receive subsidies; and
- whether the Government is concerned that the EU's agriculture, development and trade policies may not be consistent.
The evidence session will take place on Wednesday 4 July at 11am in Committee Room 3A and will be webcast live at www.parliamentlive.tv.
The evidence session is also open to the public. Journalists wishing to attend should go to Parliament's Cromwell Green Entrance and should allow time for security screening.
